Amherst is six games into a 14-game regular season schedule, and the Jeffs' only "home" contest was the season-opener, which was played at UMass on March 11. After traveling to Colorado and Maine during Spring Break, the road trip continued to nearby Springfield last week.
Springfield is in a different conference than the powerful NESCAC, and traditionally, the Jeffs have had their way with the Pride. Despite a 12-4 Amherst victory in 2006, the win was a bit harder to get this time around.
Right before the game, the Jeffs found out that standout sophomore midfielder Mary Noonan had mononucleosis and could not play. Noonan was then the second-leading scorer on the team, and though she did not play the last two games, she still ranks third on the team in points with 11 in four games. Noonan, who earned Second Team All-NESCAC honors in her rookie campaign, was a tough player to replace. "Mary is a very skilled player," said senior attacker Dana Kuper. "She's a calming force on the field, always staying confident and she doesn't get frazzled by her or her teammates' mistakes. It's hard missing her because she is so dynamic. Luckily we have some players who are stepping up to fill her spot while she's sick."
While the Jeffs were adjusting to the change in the lineup, the Pride were out to prove that they were a much different group than last year. From the start of the game, that was readily apparent. Springfield scored just 30 seconds into the game to take a quick 1-0 lead. Amherst regained its composure and Kuper tied the score off a feed from quad-captain attacker Alyssa Briody '07 at 6:55. Less than 30 seconds later, the Jeffs struck again with sophomore attacker Amy Craig scoring her first goal of the game, assisted by junior attacker Maddie Hoeg.
Springfield trailed for the first time, but didn't give up, and quickly knotted the game at 2-2. The back-and-forth scoring continued as Craig responded with an unassisted tally. Then, Springfield took over, and gave the then seventh-ranked Jeffs a scare. The Pride scored just 18 seconds after Craig's goal to tie the game and pulled ahead with just over two minutes remaining in the half. They stretched their lead to three goals with two tallies to open the second half.
The 6-3 deficit with just a quarter of the game remaining woke the Amherst squad. A Briody shot found the back of the net, then the Jeffs' leading points scorer found Craig three times to close the game with a 7-6 Amherst win. Briody and Craig had five points each: Craig scored five goals while Briody scored once and handed out our assists. Hoeg picked up three ground balls to go with her assist, and senior midfielder Liz Wise also grabbed three ground balls and forced a turnover. Junior goalie Linda McEvoy made five saves to earn the win.
Even though Amherst won, it was not the type of win the team is used to. "We only played our game for about 10 minutes," said Kuper. "I think we knew we were going to win the whole time; we just didn't start winning until after we had already backed ourselves into a corner."
Eager to put the Springfield game behind them, the Jeffs prepared for their third conference game of the season, where they have enjoyed much success. "After Springfield it was clear that we needed to fix some things and what it came down to was just really working on the basics of the game and remembering to have fun while we're out there," explained Craig. "For our Conn. game we went in with a really relaxed, but pumped up attitude."
The Jeffs were trying to have fun. Apparently scoring goals is fun. Amherst scored four times before the Camels got a shot past McEvoy. Quad-captain midfielder Lauren Dudley '07 responded with a buzzer-beater to give Amherst a 5-1 lead heading into the break. The second half began with more of the same. Five straight Amherst goals later, the Jeffs were up 10-1 with about 19 minutes left in the game. Nine goals were scored in the remaining minutes. Conn. scored three in a row, before the Jeffs matched the Camels with three of their own. The Camels were able to muster another trio of goals, but their rally was much too little too late.
In their greatest offensive outing of the season, the Jeffs outscored Conn. 13-7. Craig scored five goals and Briody had three goals and two assists as the duo combined for 10 points for the second game in a row. For scoring 10 goals in two games Craig was named NESCAC Player of the Week. Dudley tallied a hat-trick and added an assist for four points. Hoeg's goal and assist and quad-captain midfielder Rachel Lewis '07 also found the back of the net to round out the scoring for Amherst. "Our offense has been improving daily," said Craig. "We've become a really cohesive unit and are good about capitalizing on each other's movements. We have some people on our team that are really strong feeders, among other things, like Alyssa and Dana, and their skilled timing is key to our scoring opportunities."
With the big win over Conn., the Jeffs are looking like the team they want to be. "I think we're starting to find our natural rhythm as a team, on offense and defense," said Briody. "I think we were a little tense in the beginning of the season but we've remembered to relax and just enjoy playing and that has made us more effective."
Amherst cannot afford to be anything less this week. The Jeffs are hosting two NESCAC teams in what could be a season-defining week. First up is Trinity College, who is tied for third in conference standings. The big game, however, is on Saturday when Middlebury College comes to town. The Panthers have not lost a regular-season NESCAC game since the current conference format was established in 2000-2001. This season, Middlebury's only blemish has been a 11-10 loss to Salisbury University, who beat the Jeffs 11-4. Since then, the Panthers have gone on to beat the then-number one team in the country, Gettysburg University, 12-11 in overtime. "Playing Middlebury is always a challenge for us, but I think we have a great shot at beating them this year," said Lewis.
The excitement level is high as the season kicks into full gear this week. "I think the team is really hitting the upswing and getting our momentum going as we enter into a tough NESCAC stretch starting with Trinity and going into the weekend with Middlebury," said senior defender Emery Sweeney.
In addition to the prospect of home games with family members and friends on the sidelines, the Jeffs can really gain some ground in the conference standings. "We need to focus on playing our game with confidence, not changing our play because of a tough opponent of by being nervous about the outcome," said Kuper. "The NESCAC match-ups have had some really interesting outcomes: not a lot of common wins and losses. This means a lot is up for grabs in all of our conference games, for us and our opponents."
The Trinity game will be on Wednesday at 4:30, but it will be held at UMass due to the forecast of rain. The Middlebury game starts at 1:00 on Saturday.
NESCAC Notes
Amherst, Williams College and Middlebury are all undefeated in conference play while Conn., Colby and Bates Colleges have not won a NESCAC game. At the midpoint of the season, there is still plenty of lacrosse to play. The games this week are sure to rock the standings quite a bit.