Over the past two weeks the Amherst women’s field hockey team has played a total of three games, winning a match away against Connecticut College and home versus Colby, but falling to Hamilton in a tight game decided in one period of over time.
Coming off of a big win against Bates the week prior, the purple and white geared up to play on the road at Conn. College for a Wednesday night game on Oct. 5.
The first half ended with the same score as it had when time began. Neither team managed to create any dangerous scoring opportunities in their attacking third of the field, thus, entering halftime with the teams knotted at zero.
It wasn’t until time reached 38 minutes that the fans saw their first goal. Off of an ambitious shot on goal from 25 yards out, Laura Schwartsman ’20 powered the ball towards the goal from the center of the field.
Heather Brennan ’20 was able to collect the ball and send it sailing past the Camels’ goaltender for the game-winning goal. 25 minutes later Mary Margaret Stoll ’17, further secured the win off of a corner opportunity in which she gathered a shot that came flying off of one of Brennan’s stick.
With one of their last mid-week games ending in a win, the purple and white were entering the weekend with high spirits and ready to take on Hamilton. Amherst was the first to take the lead, as Stoll capitalized off of an off-target shot fired from the stick of Kendall Codey ’19. This proved to be the only goal produced in the first half, leaving all the excitement for the second frame.
Hamilton came back hard, relentlessly pressing forward to test first-year goalkeeper Emilie Flamme.
Within the first five minutes of the second half the Continentals took the lead for the first time in the match. With a quick response Caroline Fiore ’18, found the back netting after the purple and white were awarded a penalty stroke. As the game clock was winding down, again, Codey connected with Stoll who scored to tie the game just as the final whistle sounded.
Five minutes into the first period of overtime, the Continentals were again the first to find the back of the net. The close 2-1 score truly represented the competitive nature of the game in that it was a well-fought contest between two evenly matched teams.
Quickly standing back up and brushing themselves off after a tough loss against Hamilton, the purple and white matched up with Colby on Gooding Field on Saturday, Oct 15. Mary Grace Cronin ’18 scored her first goal of three for the match to get Amherst on the scoreboard. Before the end of the first half, Amherst increased their score by two ending the first half with a score of 3-1.
The purple and white continued to tally their score in the second half with two more goals from Cronin to complete her hat trick. Standout forward Sara Culhane ’18E added one goal to the purple and white tally. After a strong performance on the field, the game finished in favor of Amherst with a score of 6-2.
After these past two weeks, Amherst finds themselves with a record of 5-3 in the NESCAC and 9-3 in overall competition with a national rank of ninth in the country. They are back in action on Oct. 19 on Gooding field at 7:00 p.m. against Smith.
