The Jeffs found themselves in a difficult spot on semifinal Saturday. The NESCAC’s top seed and regular season champ was down 1-0 against Middlebury, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last year and had participated in the last five championship games. But the Jeffs came back to win 2-1 in double overtime before dispatching Trinity 2-0 in the title game on Sunday.
Trailing 1-0 to Williams with just 7:30 remaining in the NESCAC championship final on Sunday, the Amherst women’s soccer team — despite outplaying the Ephs for long stretches — was teetering on the brink of a painful defeat.
The resilient Jeffs, however, staged a sensational comeback, netting two goals in the final minutes to secure a 2-1 victory. By capturing their first NESCAC title since 2003, the Jeffs (17-0-0) kept their perfect record intact, and also avenged last year’s championship loss to Williams, a 1-0 defeat that ended Amherst’s 2010 season.
With NESCAC title hopes on the line, the football team hosted Trinity on Saturday in one of the most anticipated matchups in the rivalry’s history. Both teams came into the contest with undefeated records, sitting at 6-0, and with only two games left in the season, the victor was guaranteed a share of the NESCAC crown. For the Jeffs, it would mean a chance to earn only their second-ever outright title, while the Bantams, quite accustomed to regular-season success, were looking for their fifth title in the past decade.
The volleyball team’s season ended at Bowdoin on Friday night when the fifth-seeded Firedogs fell to No. 4 Trinity 3-1 in the NESCAC quarterfinals.
In the regular-season matchup of these two teams, Trinity blanked Amherst 3-0, so this weekend’s 3-1 loss was an improvement for the Firedogs.
The team suffered a big setback in having to play without setter Callie Neilson ’13, who was hurt with a concussion during practice last week.
The cross country teams showed their depth over the weekend, with the women’s and men’s teams both finishing in the top 10 at the ECAC Championships on Saturday, without their respective top runners. The women took fifth, while the men ended up sixth.
The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is made up of 312 member schools, including 182 Div. III schools.
Forty women’s teams and 44 men’s teams participated in Saturday’s race at Williams, giving the Lord Jeffs plenty of competition.
In the past week of action, the Jeffs ended their NESCAC run with a loss to Middlebury while extending their post-season by earning an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
On Saturday, the Jeffs fell to the Panthers 2-1 in overtime in the NESCAC semifinal game at Bowdoin. Amherst kicked things off at the five-minute mark when senior Carly Dudzik took advantage of a penalty stroke, firing a shot past Middlebury goalie Becca Shaw to put the Jeffs on top, 1-0.
As the baseball cracked off the bat of David Freese in the ninth inning in Game 6 of the World Series, St. Louis Cardinals fans held their collective breath while watching the trajectory of a ball that represented the last, flimsy hope of an unforgettable season. Texas Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz, with a World Series championship falling towards him, inexplicably misplayed the fly ball, and as it found the outfield grass for a game-tying triple, the country sat in awe as the Busch Stadium crowd threatened to shatter the eardrums of every Missouri resident.
