Amherst entered the matchup with a 4-3 record, while the visiting Ephs came in with six wins and two losses overall. Once underway, it was apparent that neither the Ephs nor the cold blustery weather could deter the home team’s aggressive attack. Still in the opening minutes, Amherst’s own senior quad-captain Mary Noonan bested her defender with a deft maneuver, before sending the ball hurtling past the opposing goalie and into the net, giving Amherst an early lead of 1-0. After a short defensive stand, the Lord Jeffs again attacked, with quick goals by junior Hannah Walker and senior quad-captain Amy Craig, boosting the Amherst lead to 3-0.
Fighting to recover from the initial onslaught, Williams battled back, managing to get their first goal of the game when Julia Nawrocki flicked the ball into the Amherst net from close range, through a crowd of Ephs and Jeffs alike. Amherst avenged the goal mere moments later as Craig again slipped through Eph defenders for a quick scoring play, marking her second goal of the day and lifting the Amherst lead to 4-1.
Once again Williams bounced back, as the Ephs’ Margie Fulton found an opening in the Jeffs’ defense and scored with roughly 12 minutes to play in the first half. But again the Jeffs had an answer. Hannah Walker ’10 wasted no time bagging her second goal. Then, incredibly, some 10 seconds later, Noonan gained the ensuing draw control, floated through the Williams defense, and scored once more. Still in the frenetic first half, both teams managed to score again, bumping up the score to 7-3.
While the first half of the match was characterized by superior speed and aggressiveness on the part of the Lord Jeffs, their play after the intermission seemed designed to protect their lead rather than bolster it. The result: sloppy passes and missed scoring opportunities.
Playing with greater urgency than the home team, Williams managed to score three unanswered goals through the efforts of Britt Spackman, Fulton and Anne Marie Burke, to move the Ephs within a single goal of knotting the game. But fortunately the goals also seemed to wake up the Lord Jeffs, who found their second wind. With about nine minutes left in regulation, the Jeffs scored yet again with a perfect pass from Walker to Craig, resulting in a clean and powerful running shot that eluded the grasp of the Williams goalie, making the score 8-6 for Amherst and giving the Jeffs some breathing room.
Towards the end of the game, Williams frantically attempted to overcomem the Jeffs’ lead, Only one of their numerous shots against the exceptional defense of the first-year goalie Lamia Harik managed to slip through, drawing the Ephs once again to within one goal of tying the game. The Jeffs’ defense held, and the Ephs were unable to make the goal before the clock finally wound down to zero. Although the second half of the game was mostly forgettable for the Jeffs, their offensive fireworks in the first half gave a glimpse of the team’s true capabilities. In any case, there is no such thing as an ugly win, particularly against Williams, and Amherst will gladly take the result.