The Trinity College women’s lacrosse team played inhospitable hosts to its Amherst counterpart last Friday afternoon, yanking the welcome mat out from under the Jeffs in a 11-7 win. In the process, the Bantams, ranked 11th nationally, extended Amherst’s late-season losing streak to four and dropped the purple and white to a record of 6-7 on the year, including a forgettable 3-6 within the NESCAC. Even with the discouraging record, however, the Lord Jeffs managed to secure the eighth and final slot for the NESCAC tournament in which they had to contend with top-seeded Tufts University on Sunday.
Amherst senior and perennial scorer Amy Craig racked up three more goals on the day to make it 38 tallies for the 2009 season alone and a dazzling career point total of over 200. Taking into account a pair of previous campaigns in which she averaged more than 50 goals per season, no one can deny that she has solidified her position as one of the best attackers in Div. III lacrosse. Unfortunately, Trinity’s well-balanced squad was more than a match for Craig’s individual heroics with the Bantams’ first-year goalkeeper Gina Dinallo making 16 saves and Caitlin Irvine and Liz Bruno each notching a pair of goals for Trinity.
Although the eventual score proved lopsided, Amherst actually scored first, before reality — in the form of the Bantams’ unrelenting offensive pressure — set in. The first half closed with Trinity doubling the Lord Jeffs’ output at 6-3, and the second stanza only brought more of the same, with Trinity scoring four unanswered goals during one stretch to ice the game. With the win, Trinity improves to 10-3 for regular season play and 6-3 in NESCAC.
As a result of Friday’s loss to Trinity, Amherst drew the thankless assignment of playing the Tufts Jumbos, the NESCAC’s top seed and the 7th-ranked team in the country. Although some may have figured the result to be a foregone conclusion, the Lord Jeffs ignored the hype and came ready to compete. Their hustling play and sharp mental focus were evident, especially early, as Amherst led 5-4 at halftime only to fall finally by a count of 14-11 for their fifth consecutive, and season-ending, defeat.
As usual, the Lord Jeffs were led by Amy Craig in their final game, whose five goals and three assists in her final brilliant outing as a collegian brought her career point total to an amazing 209. Craig’s phenomenal finale seemed to inspire similar outstanding efforts from her teammates, as senior Mary Noonan and first-year Allie Horwitz each netted two goals for the Amherst side. With the loss, the Lord Jeffs stumbled to a final mark of 6-8; and while the team cannot be happy with a losing record and must look back on its end-of-season five-game swoon with a deflated sense of “what might have been,” the fact remains that the Lord Jeffs came within a single victory of finishing at .500 on the year, despite playing in a highly competitive conference. As for the four seniors and quad-captains — Craig, Noonan, Caki Guinee, and Catherine Calvert — their mettle and experience will be sorely missed. But having averaged 10 wins per season over their college careers, as well as trips to the National Quarterfinals in 2006 and 2008, they can be proud of what is sure to be their lasting legacy in the annals of Amherst lacrosse.
Ultimately, a frustrating tendency to squander hard-won leads proved to be this squad’s Achilles heel, but this very same inconsistency, along with a nucleus of talented returning players, augurs well for an exciting 2010 season.