In the past week, the Jeffs defeated Conn. College in their final regular season game and went on to take Wesleyan in their quarterfinal NESCAC game.

On Wednesday, Amherst secured the No. 2 spot in the NESCAC by beating Conn. 3-0. The Jeffs kicked it off at the 27:16 mark on a penalty corner when Katie McMahon ’13 sent the ball to Carly Dudzik ’12, who fed it to Sarah McCarrick ’12 for the team’s first goal.

While Amherst’s offense controlled the game, the Camels’ goalie, Becca Napolitano, kept her team in the game with 21 saves.
The Jeffs didn’t strike again until the final five minutes of the second half. At the 65:21 mark, Chrissy Cantore ’12 fed McMahon to double the Jeff’s lead. Minutes later, McMahon, Dudzik and McCarrick combined to register the team’s third and final goal in the same fashion as the first.

First-year goalie Rachel Tannenbaum had five saves on the day, including a huge diving save on a Camel second-half penalty corner. “We definitely dominated the game, which is seen by the amount of shots we had on goal,” Tannenbaum commented. “The Conn. goalie was very good, but we were able to score goals by the end of the game because we just kept pounding the ball in the circle.”

The team pressed on to their first postseason game, taking Wesleyan 3-1 on Saturday to move on to the NESCAC semifinals.
Within the first minute of play, sophomore Alex Philie broke out and down the sideline and fed McMahon, who tipped the ball in for the team’s first goal.

About eight minutes later, the Jeffs earned a penalty corner. Wesleyan’s goalie Tori Redding blocked Dudzik’s first shot, but McCarrick continued to apply pressure, rebounding the shot and feeding it to sophomore Krista Zsitvay, who notched the second goal of the game.

“Something we have been working on is starting our games strong and scoring early, and we certainly did that on Saturday,” Dudzik said.

“Wesleyan put up a great fight, but those first two goals gave us the confidence we needed to stay strong and come away with the win.”

Tannenbaum held her own against a smattering of Wesleyan shots in the remainder of the first half. She recorded eight saves on the day.

Dudzik went to work again at 40:31, powering through the Wesleyan defense and slipping the ball to Cantore, who tipped it in to make the score 3-0.

Wesleyan went on the offensive, earning two corners and registering a couple of shots before redirecting a loose ball into the net to register Wesleyan’s first and only goal.

While the Cardinals continued to apply pressure, registering 10 shots in the second half, the Amherst defense stood strong.
Another added difficulty was when it started snowing in the second half.

McCarrick noted that “the team demonstrated a great deal of composure to continue to play through the snowstorm and finish the game strong.”

The No. 2 Jeffs will take on No. 3 Middlebury at Bowdoin in their NESCAC semifinal game on Saturday.
Tannenbaum anticipates an exciting weekend ahead: “I believe that we can go really far this season because we have a very strong team of athletes,” she commented. “We are all really excited for the opportunities to play this weekend in Maine.”