Heading into the NESCAC quarterfinals as the fifth seed, the Amherst Women’s Lacrosse team suffered a tough loss to fourth-seeded Colby over the weekend in Waterville, Maine. Two four-goal runs in the second half helped the Mules to an 11-3 victory over No. 12 Amherst, who also fell to No. 1 Trinity, 11-6, last Tuesday. Finishing 9-6 overall, the team hopes to receive at-large bid to the NCAA Championship tournament when the 32-team field is announced on Sunday.
No. 8 Colby jumped out to an early start with two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game, but Elizabeth Ludlow ’14 found Caroline Holliday ’14 to put Amherst on the board at 15:31. The Mules scored the final goal of the half at 11:54, as even play resulted in no tallies for either team in the final 12 minutes.
Ahead by two at the start of the second half, Colby tallied four straight goals in the first eight minutes to take a 7-1 lead. Ludlow finally broke the streak with help from Krista Zsitvay ’14 at 22:22, but another 4-0 run from the Mules would make it difficult to catch up. Trailing by eight with four minutes left to play, captain Hilary Densen ’13 netted the final goal for Amherst on a free position shot, but the Jeffs came up short at the buzzer as Colby walked away with the 11-3 victory.
Amherst edged out Colby in shots with a 23-22 advantage, while both teams scooped up 14 ground balls. The Jeffs also held an 11-5 advantage in draw controls and went 12-for-13 on clears from the crease, but the Mules converted four of seven free position shots while Amherst finished 1-for-8. Goalkeeper Christy Forrest ’16 made eight saves in the loss.
Earlier in the week the Jeffs came up short against No. 1 Trinity, falling 11-6 in their final game of the regular season. Last season Amherst snapped Trinity’s 27-game regular season win streak with a one-goal victory over the Bantams, but the Jeffs struggled to overthrow the top-ranked, undefeated squad this year.
Taking an early lead, Hadley Duncan ’13 put Trinity on the board with an unassisted goal just 1:07 after the opening draw. The Bantams struck twice more in a two-minute span to give the visitors a 3-0 lead in the first five minutes of play.
Sophomore Caroline Hayes added a tally at 18:29, but first-year Mia Haughton ended the run with a free-position goal just over a minute later.
Meghan Mills ’15 netted her first at 17:11 to cut the Bantams’ lead in half, but back-to-back goals from sophomore Kaitlin Hildebrand put Trinity ahead, 6-2. Driving to the net with 2:02 left to play, Mills buried her second score of the game to cut the deficit to three as Amherst headed into halftime trailing, 6-3.
Scoring was quiet for the first 12 minutes of the second half as neither team capitalized offensively, but Trinity was first on the board as first-year Martha Griffin roll dodged her defender and buried hard shot to the upper-right hand corner. Senior Meghan Leonhard stretched the margin to five with a free-position goal three minutes later.
With 10 minutes left to play in the second half, Ludlow fired a high shot past the Trinity goalie to bring the Jeffs within four. The Bantams responded with an unassisted goal at 7:58, but Alex Philie ’14 fed Densen in front 30 seconds later to keep the Jeffs alive.
Two goals in the final five minutes gave Trinity an 11-5 lead with 3:36 remaining in the game, but Zsitvay got the final word for Amherst, scoring an unassisted goal with six seconds left on the clock. The exciting finish would not be enough, however, as the Jeffs came up short, 11-6.
Amherst will now wait to hear if they’ve been selected for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. Selections will take place on Sunday, May 5 at 9:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
