The top-ranked women’s hockey team began this year’s NESCAC Championship run with a quarterfinal match against eighth-seeded Hamilton College on Saturday. In the teams’ two previous match-ups this year, Amherst won 6-2 and 6-1, making the Jeffs the clear favorites. However, the Continentals came out strong and got an early lead when senior forward Kathryn Kroleski got a breakaway one minute into the game.
“When the game started, we were playing a bit tight. I think it was definitely a shock to the system to fall behind as quickly as we did, so people had the jitters in the first 10 minutes,” said goaltender Krystyn Elek ’10. The jitters were short-lived, however, and Michelle McGann ’10 buried a beautiful pass from sophomore Courtney Hanlon at 13:55 to salvage the first period.
Of the team’s early nerves, Elek said, “When we went back into the locker room, we settled down and were able to completely change the tone of the game.”
The next two periods looked like a different game, with Amherst dominating possession and maintaining almost constant pressure with shot after shot. The Jeffs didn’t waste time taking the lead: At 1:15 Megan Curry ’11 took the entire Hamilton defense to class as she earned an unassisted goal. Nine minutes later, defenseman Randi Zukas ’11 continued her recent scoring streak with another brutal slapshot past Continental goalkeeper Meg Shine. First-year superstar Josie Fisher finished off the second period in style, putting on enough brilliant moves to get around three Continentals.
The last period was a similar story as the Jeffs’ offensive machine rolled on. Fisher got her second goal of the game as she skated around the net, burying a rebound from behind the red line. Less than two minutes later, junior Alyssa Chwick found sophomore Britt Evans open in front of the net to put Amherst up 6-1. The final nail in the coffin came from junior Molly Malloy when she got a breakaway with three minutes left and decked Shine right out of her pads.
With the victory, Amherst advances to the semifinals and will face Connecticut College on Saturday. Conn. College upset third seed Trinity College 2-1 this weekend to win their quarterfinal game. In their last meeting, on Feb. 22., the Jeffs barely edged the Camels 1-0.
Eled said, “I am actually glad that our last game against them was so close. Connecticut is not a team that will just lie down and let you walk all over them. Anyway, we are well aware of the fact that they are going to play an unbelievably tough game against us on Saturday, so we aren’t going to take anything for granted, especially given that they just upset Trinity in the quarterfinals.”
The other semifinal match is a repeat of last year’s between Middlebury and Colby. Last year, the Mules won in overtime before going on to lose to Amherst in the championship game.
Looking forward to a possible final against Middlebury, sophomore Courtney Hanlon said, “Although we have convincingly beaten Middlebury twice this year, our team still retains the same respect for the Panthers that we’ve always had. Any game against Middlebury is always a good one — we know that they are a very strong team and although we’ve gotten the best of them so far this season, we will undoubtedly come prepared for the fight that [the Panthers] would put up should we see each other in the finals.”