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On the heels of a 20-game winning streak, the women’s soccer team suffered its first — and only — defeat of the 2011 season against top-ranked Messiah in the NCAA Quarterfinals last Sunday, losing by a 3-1 score. The No. 8 Jeffs finished the year with a sterling 20-1-0 overall mark, setting a program record for wins in a season.
After an undefeated regular season and a NESCAC championship victory over Williams, the Jeffs cruised through the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, defeating both Castleton State and Misericordia by a 3-1 result.
The undefeated women’s soccer team continued its perfect season with NCAA Tournament wins over Castleton State and Misericordia this weekend, earning a pair of 3-1 victories to advance to the national Round of 16.
The Jeffs, the No. 8-ranked team in the country, secured the program’s first Sweet 16 appearance in three years. Amherst (19-0-0) will face Johns Hopkins (21-0-0) in a battle of undefeated heavyweights for a berth in the national quarterfinals.
Trailing 1-0 to Williams with just 7:30 remaining in the NESCAC championship final on Sunday, the Amherst women’s soccer team — despite outplaying the Ephs for long stretches — was teetering on the brink of a painful defeat.
The resilient Jeffs, however, staged a sensational comeback, netting two goals in the final minutes to secure a 2-1 victory. By capturing their first NESCAC title since 2003, the Jeffs (17-0-0) kept their perfect record intact, and also avenged last year’s championship loss to Williams, a 1-0 defeat that ended Amherst’s 2010 season.
With heavy snow blitzing Hitchcock Field, the top-seeded women’s soccer team booted away the wintry conditions en route to a nerve-racking 3-2 overtime victory over eighth-seeded Bowdoin in the NESCAC quarterfinals.
The undefeated Jeffs (15-0-0), ranked No. 8 in the nation, averted a first-round scare to continue their remarkable winning streak.
After navigating past a dangerous Bowdoin side, Amherst will battle fifth-seeded Wesleyan this Saturday for a berth in the NESCAC championship game.
Galvanized by a spirited home crowd, the women’s soccer team delighted fans with a decisive 3-0 win over Wesleyan at Homecoming this weekend. With the victory, the nationally eighth-ranked Jeffs (13-0-0, 9-0-0 NESCAC) clinched the top seed in the NESCAC tournament, thereby securing home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs.
The Jeffs overwhelmed Wesleyan with precise ball movement, dynamic attacking combinations and relentless pressure on defense, giving the Cardinals (8-5-0, 4-5-0 NESCAC) very little time to settle on the ball.
Last year, the women’s soccer team struggled to an 8-7-2 record, failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament, and ended its season with a tough 1-0 loss to Williams in the NESCAC Championship Game.
The Jeffs vowed to change the script this season. So far, the results have been spectacular.
With two wins this weekend, the women’s soccer team matched the school record for best start to a season at 7-0-0 (5-0-0 NESCAC). The Jeffs beat Trinity and Tufts, both by scores of 2-0.
“I think a huge part of our success so far this season has been our team chemistry; we all have a common goal, to reach our collective potential and compete for every single game, and have bought into it 100 percent,” senior tri-captain Jess Wall said.
