Heading into the last weekend of regular season play, the Firedogs looked to end the season strong. After a resounding 3-1 victory at Wesleyan, Amherst stumbled to a 3-0 loss to Trinity. Even with the split, Amherst remained in third place in NESCAC heading into the all-important NESCAC tournament this weekend.
Amherst jumped on host Wesleyan early by taking the first game 25-15 behind excellent defense that lead into efficient offense.
The Firedogs held the Cardinals to a .057 hitting percentage, while hitting .423 on the first game. After the opening game the Firedogs looked to continue their pace of play.
“Our goal for the Wesleyan match was to stay consistently aggressive, and I think we achieved that,” first-year Nicole Gould said.
The Firedogs continued to push the pace and won the second game 25-19. Amherst has played excellent defense all season and faced one of the NESCACs top attackers in Wesleyan’s Kim Farris. Amherst refused to let her beat them and they held her to a .048 hitting percentage on the match. The Firedogs held Wesleyan to a .130 hitting percentage as a team and combined for eight blocks on the match.
After jumping out to the early two game to zero lead on the Cardinals, however, Wesleyan fought back and won the third game 25-20. Amherst wouldn’t be denied the win after fighting so hard early and won the decisive fourth game handily 25-17.
The Firedogs were lead by Maggie Danner ’17 who led all attackers with 22 kills and Nicole Carter ’16 who was responsible for 50 assists.
After the big NESCAC win the night before, Amherst fell flat against Trinity. The Bantams took a page from the Firedogs’ playbook and used great defense along with efficient offense to win the match. The Firedogs were unable to get into a rhythm offensively and were held to a .116 hitting percentage for the match.
Trinity battled and won the first game 25-22 before decisively winning the second game 25-13. Although Amherst was able to make the third game close, they ultimately couldn’t stop the Bantam’s momentum and lost 25-21.
Danner and Gould led Amherst with 10 and 11 kills respectively. Carter played another strong match posting a double double with 23 assists and 13 digs. Katie Warshaw ’16 continued to make her case as one of the NESCAC’s top defensive players by notching 34 digs.
With the loss, Amherst finished the regular season with a mark of 19-7 overall and 7-3 in NESCAC play. That mark was good enough for third place in regular season play and a match up with rival Middlebury this Friday.
“We are all really excited and focused for NESCACs this weekend. In preparation, we’re working on both our strengths and weaknesses in practice,” Gould said.
Williams will host the NESCAC tournament since they won the regular season crown, but Amherst looks to have a great chance at the tournament crown.
Amherst split their matches against Middlebury this season, and lost in a tight match two weekends ago 3-2. However, the Firedogs have to be excited that they swept Middlebury earlier in the season on the road.
If the Firedogs win Friday night, they will face the winner of the Trinity-Bowdoin matchup. If that match goes as expected, Amherst will face a very dangerous Bowdoin team that swept the Firedogs in late September. This is a very different Amherst team, however, and isn’t intimidated by Bowdoin or any other NESCAC foe.
