Men
Touring Southern California for their season-opening trip, the Men’s tennis team got their 2013 campaign off to a solid start over spring break. Playing 17 matches in six days, the Jeffs underwent a grueling early test and still managed to finish with a 12-5 record. It was an impressive result for this new-look team, who graduated three of its top six players last season; the squad looks poised to make up for those losses with impressive depth and a strong freshman class.
If you were ever an endurance athlete (running, nordic skiing, cycling, for instance), you know what it’s like to develop a routine. That is, six days a week — for months at a time — of intervals, distance, tempos, strength, followed by a coach- or trainer-imposed (or self-imposed, if you were training alone and very disciplined) rest day.
Enduring some growing pains with a young, inexperienced roster, the men’s lacrosse team suffered back-to-back overtime defeats at Colby and Bates last weekend.
In both heartbreaking losses, the Jeffs (0-2) rallied from late deficits in regulation, only to concede the first goal in sudden-death overtime. Amherst is now just 2-8 in its last 10 games against NESCAC opponents (dating back to last season).
Women’s basketball is headed back to the Final Four, defeating Tufts and Widener Univ. to earn their berth in Friday’s national semifinal. The team capitalized on near-perfect foul shooting to gut out a defensive battle with Tufts, 47-42, before using a trademark second-half run and huge individual performances to defeat Widener, 59-45. With the victories, the Jeffs (30-1) clinched their fifth consecutive Final Four appearance and will be looking for their second title in three years.
After getting a bye in the opening round of the Division III NCAA Championship, the men’s basketball team opened their tournament play by hosting Plattsburgh State over the weekend.
The second-ranked Jeffs came into the contest riding a 19-game winning streak and were looking to earn their third consecutive Sweet 16 berth. Behind an impressive, offensive outburst from Aaron Toomey ’14, Amherst did just that, riding a big second-half to a lopsided win and keeping their title hopes alive.
The Amherst Women’s Lacrosse team opened its season last weekend with a pair of NESCAC games against No 7. Colby and Bates, falling 10-7 to the Mules on Saturday but coming back for an exciting 9-8 victory against the Bobcats on Sunday afternoon. The Jeffs were ranked eighth in the first Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association poll heading into the weekend, showing a promising start to the season.
It would be difficult for the Lady Jeffs to experience more regular-season success in 2013 than they had in 2012.
To give some idea of the extent of the squad’s early-season dominance, the Jeffs won their first 22 games of 2012 while relinquishing more than three runs in only three of those contests.
After a rare loss to Keene State, the Jeffs didn’t seem to be fazed: they went on to win 12 of their next 13 and looked to be in position to coast to a NESCAC Championship.
