Women’s basketball opened NCAA tournament play in style over the weekend, winning their two opening-round games by a combined total of 64 points. The team jumped out to a 21-3 lead and cruised to a 67-39 victory over Farmingdale State before dropping 41 second-half points on the Univ. of New England in a 71-34 beat down. The victories set up a tantalizing rematch as the Lord Jeffs (28-1) will host Tufts on Friday in Sweet 16 action.
On the eve of his retirement as commissioner of the NBA, among some other noteworthy legacies, David Stern will leave a residing impact on player fashion in the world’s premier basketball league.
The men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams traveled to Tufts last weekend to compete in the Tufts Last Chance Meet.
Women
Keri Lambert ’13 and Naomi Bates ’14 led the Jeffs, as they have all season, winning individual events and posting some of the fastest times in Div. III running this season.
Bates started her meet off in strong form, winning the 60-meter dash in 7.87 seconds, the 26th-fastest time this year.
Teammates Abbeh Anderson ’14 (7.92) and Taylor Summers ’16 (8.03) crossed the finish line in fourth and fifth, respectively.
The Amherst women’s hockey team suffered a heartbreaking loss Saturday afternoon, falling to Bowdoin, 3-1, in the NESCAC Championship semifinals. The Jeffs finished with a 13-11-1 overall record, missing the title game for the first time since the 2005-06 season.
Bowdoin went on to defeat host Middlebury, 2-1, for their first NESCAC Championship since 2004.
Bowdoin jumped on the board early Saturday afternoon, taking a 1-0 lead six minutes into the first period.
After falling spectacularly short of expectations last year, the men’s lacrosse team begins the new season with a chip on its shoulder, eager to reassert its status as one of the top teams in the NESCAC. Starting fresh after a disappointing 9-7 (5-5 NESCAC) season in 2012, the Jeffs hope to rebound with an influx of new young talent.
“We will be a fairly young squad,” third-year head coach Jon Thompson said. “My goals will be to relentlessly pursue individual and collective improvement so that we are playing our best lacrosse in late April.”
To say that the Lord Jeffs have lost talent to graduation would be a considerable understatement.
Last year’s senior class featured two fearsome bats in the middle of the lineup, Mike Samela and Kevin Heller. In June of last year, Heller, the program’s all-time leader in four offensive categories, was selected by the Red Sox in the MLB Amateur Draft; after a stint in the Gulf Coast League, he was called up to the Class A Lowell Spinners in September.
Women’s basketball claimed the NESCAC championship in decisive fashion over the weekend, beating Bowdoin 60-45 before using 19 second-half points from Marcia Voigt ’13 to triumph over Williams, 53-38, in the title game. With the win, the fifth-ranked Lord Jeffs (26-1) captured their fourth NESCAC title in five years, avenging their sole loss earlier this month in Williamstown and assuring themselves of an automatic NCAA tournament bid.
