The Amherst women’s tennis team served up quite the 2017-2018 season debut this past weekend at the MIT Invitational, held at duPont Tennis Courts and J.B. Carr Tennis Bubble. After its abrupt and unanticipated elimination from the first round of the NESCAC tournament and the second round of the national tournament last year, the team will no doubt look forward to this season. With head coach Jackie Bagwell entering her 27th season this fall, the team entered the MIT Invitational with nine individuals for the singles match and four teams for doubles.
On Saturday, the Amherst men’s football team opened its season with a resounding 41-17 victory over the Bates Bobcats. This was a morale-boosting win for a program that was coming off of a disappointing 4-4 season, which saw the Mammoths devastated by a rash of injuries to key players.
The purple and white opened up the scoring with a seven-play drive, culminating in a 49-yard pass from Ollie Ebert ‘20 to James O’Regan ’20 in the back of the end zone.
After suffering a pair of hard-fought 3-2 losses early last week to Endicott and Middlebury, the Amherst volleyball team managed to string together three consecutive wins against out-of-conference foes, gathering momentum for the weeks ahead.
It was a tough weekend for the Amherst men’s soccer team as they suffered their first regular season home loss in six years on Saturday. After falling to Middlebury, the Mammoths are now 1-1 on the season and have dropped to sixth in the NESCAC standings.
Amherst controlled the run of play, outshooting the Panthers 15-8 and earning eight corner kicks to Middlebury’s three. However, the Mammoths were unable to capitalize on their many quality chances. Representative of Amherst’s unlucky performance was sophomore striker Dane Lind’s chance in the 45th minute of play.
This week, the Amherst women’s hockey team returned to action and picked up two important wins against NESCAC rival Trinity to push the team’s overall record to 4-2.
In their first contest against the Bantams, the Mammoths used a dominant offensive performance to leave the ice with an impressive 6-2 win. Following a scoreless first period, Trinity was the first team to get on the board, scoring in the sixth minute of the second period during a power play stemming from an Amherst hooking penalty.
The New York Times revealed last Tuesday that the Boston Red Sox, in a move wholly uncharacteristic of a New England-area sports team that has enjoyed enormous success since the early 2000s and plays in a neighborhood whose name begins with the letter “F,” had been using an Apple Watch to steal opposing teams’ signs. Apparently, someone watching the game broadcast would decode the opposing catcher’s sign sequence and text the code to a trainer.
The Amherst men’s soccer team kicked off its 2017 campaign with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Bowdoin on Saturday, Sept. 9. After 90 minutes of even, physical play, it was a penalty kick awarded in the first half that allowed the Mammoths to eke out the result.
In the 24th minute, the Polar Bears were called for a handball in their own 18-yard box, and junior forward Fikayo Ajayi stepped up to take the resulting penalty kick.
