The purple and white clinched their first NESCAC playoff spot since 2012 with a 10-inning win against Wesleyan on Saturday. The team followed up a solid 9-6 win over Western New England University during the week with a commanding victory, 11-2. The weekend saw two low-scoring games with Wesleyan, followed by the final 9-7 win that sent the team to the post-season.
I sat at Valentine several nights ago and couldn’t help but overhear two students sitting nearby:
“Whoever designed this place was so stupid — I don’t even know what he was thinking.”
“I know, right? Even the redesign failed miserably. Like, why would you put booths over here — you can’t get in and out of them! And then those new tables in the front room — I get the “social atmosphere” hope they were going for, but it makes it so there’s never enough seating.”
“Everything about this dining hall is a fail — even when they try to make it better.”
The past two semesters saw a huge resurgence of student activism and much encouraging work to make the college a better place. The most notable example of student activism was Amherst Uprising, which sparked conversation typically rare to our campus. The movement brought crucial issues to the forefront, yet on a campus marked by the stress of academics and extracurriculars, it’s hard for overburdened students to sustain the same level of high energy activism.
In Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” Little Red Riding Hood questions “Isn’t it nice to know a lot / and a little bit not.” This phrase, as a postscript to a number in which she extols the virtues of knowledge and mastery, poses a perennial question for students like us. If we are committed to intellectual inquiry, can we or should we imagine that we know and can do everything? Or, is it perhaps better to know “a little bit not,” and to cope and live with the unexplored mystery beyond our own intellect and power?
Although the Amherst women dropped their last regular season game this past Wednesday, April 27 against Trinity, they routed Hamilton, 15-5, on Saturday, April 30, in the quarterfinal round of the NESCAC championship.
Trinity took an early five-goal lead in the first half and despite picking up some momentum in the second half, the purple and white were unable to make up the deficit.
Trinity defender Ashley Stewart led the Bantams’ strong defensive effort, finishing with a game-high five caused turnovers and four ground balls.
This past weekend, the men’s track team competed at home in the NESCAC championships. Out of the 11-team field, Amherst finished sixth with a final score of 36.
Finishing in front of the purple and white were Williams, Tufts, Middlebury, Bates and Bowdoin.
As he has all season, sophomore Mohamed Hussein impressed in the 5,000-meter run. He finished the race in 14:50.98 to claim third place out of 30 runners from all around the NESCAC.
Last Saturday’s beautiful late afternoon sun provided a picturesque background for Amherst women’s tennis’ senior day, but the purple and white were unable to provide a victory befitting such a day, falling to Middlebury in a 6-3 heartbreaker.
