It took until the 10th match of the season, but the No. 7 Amherst men’s tennis team finally hosted its home-opener this past Wednesday against Conn. College. The Mammoths capitalized on the home court advantage, as they didn’t lose a match, beating the Camels 9-0. Amherst then had its second home match of the season on Friday against Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and although the hosts faced a stiffer challenge, they still emerged with a 6-3 win.
Firmly in the midst of conference play, the No. 7 Amherst men’s tennis team split its two matchups, beating No. 25 Bates but falling to Bowdoin, which entered the matchup ranked second in the nation. It was an uneven Maine trip for the Mammoths as they squeezed out the 5-4 win over Bates but were handily defeated by Bowdoin, 8-1.
Amherst started the road trip off in Lewiston when it faced off against Bates inside Merrill Gym. The different conditions seemed to phase the Mammoths as they dropped two of the first three doubles matches.
Avoiding the cold and snow on campus, the Amherst men’s tennis team made its annual trip to California to kick off the spring season. In the span of a week, the Mammoths matched up against some of the best schools that Division III has to offer, with all five opponents ranked in the top 30 and three in the top 10. Overall, it was an incredibly successful week for the No. 6 team in the nation, as Amherst emerged ahead in four of their five matches.
This past weekend, Amherst sent its two top divers to Middlebury to compete at the NCAA Region 3 Diving Championships.
Lindsey Ruderman ’21 and Jackie Palermo ’19 did the Mammoths proud by both posting impressive scores in competition against a talented group of divers from across the region.
The event serves as a qualifier for the DIII Swim and Diving Championships.
Athletes can qualify for the national event by posting qualifying scores at two seperate events throughout the season in either height, one or three meters.
Despite suffering their first loss of the season to Williams, who are currently ranked fifth in the nation, the Amherst women’s swimming and diving team rebounded this past Saturday to top No. 23 Conn. College in the Mammoths closest meet of the season by a score of 167-127. The trip to New London bookended a three-meet schedule over interterm that started with a dominant 226-53 victory for Amherst over Union College.
The Amherst women’s indoor track and field team will look to build on the momentum of the fall cross-country season, which concluded with a fifth-place finish at the NESCAC championships and an individual championship from Nicky Roberts ’18. While the Mammoths will miss the presence of since graduated Kiana Herold, who finished ninth in the high jump at the Division III Indoor Championships, the team will return several standouts, including Abbey Asare-Bediako ’18 in the triple jump.
It was an action-packed weekend for the men’s tennis team, as it played three matches in a span of 48 hours. In arguably their most important stretch of tennis all season, the Mammoths took on the No. 1 team in the nation, Emory, and highly-ranked Little III rivals Wesleyan and Hamilton. When all was said and done, Amherst had finished strong, winning the last two matches to wind up 2-1 on the weekend.
