Around the Herd: March 6 to March 12 in Athletics

Men’s Tennis

The men’s tennis team hosted their first NESCAC match on Saturday, facing Wesleyan University. The Mammoths only lost one singles matchup and only one doubles matchup, taking home the victory with a score of 7-2. Edred Opie ’25 and Rex Hamilton ’27 each recorded a bagel in their respective matches — Hamilton’s first of his Amherst tennis career. Their record improved to 5-0 overall, remaining unbeaten on the season.

The team will face Schreiner University this Sunday.

Women’s Tennis

This past weekend, in Amherst, the women’s tennis team faced both Wesleyan University and Brandeis University.

In their first match of the season, it did not seem as though the Mammoths were ready, as Wesleyan completely swept every match of the ladder. The score finished 9-0 — the first loss of this magnitude to Wesleyan in Amherst women’s tennis history. However, the score is slightly unfair to the Amherst athletes, most matches were extremely close, but Wesleyan was able to win two doubles tiebreaks and two singles tiebreaks. While Wesleyan was able to pull out these wins, the matches were much closer than the score suggests.

Nevertheless, Amherst was able to bounce back the next day in a match against Brandeis University, earning their first victory of the season. Lily Dounchis ’27 and Greta Stechschulte ’27 won their first matches of their Amherst tennis careers. This time, Amherst was able to win one of two of its doubles tiebreaks. And two Mammoths, Amy Cui ’25 and Sophie Diop ’26, lost each of their first sets and were able to bounce back to win their respective matches. These matches were integral to the team’s 6-3 win.

Amherst finished the weekend with a 1-1 record. The Mammoths will face the University of Redlands this Sunday.

Women’s Track and Field

Select athletes competed at DIII nationals in Virginia, this past weekend.

Eliza Cardwell ’25 finished sixth in the long jump with a mark of 5.67m. She also dominated the 60m hurdles, finishing in 8.60 seconds and in sixth place, breaking her own school record in the process. Her two finishes earned her two First-Team All-American Honors, Amherst’s first to do so in an indoor season since 2020.

The distance medley team finished tenth, earning Second-Team All-American Honors for Julia Schor ’25, Casie Eifrig ’25,  Zoë Marcus ’27 , Piper Lentz ’26. The team ran the event in 11:47.49.

The women’s track and field team will next compete in an outdoor meet against Wesleyan on March 23.

Baseball

On Saturday, the baseball team faced Ramapo College in their first game of the season. The Mammoths were scoreless for the first two innings of the game, even allowing Ramapo to score a two RBI single. Nevertheless, the team immediately rallied back in the following inning, scoring seven straight runs. First, Jack McDermott ’25 hit an RBI double, after Luke Padian ’24 was hit by a pitch to force Jack Sempedro ’24 home, the score was 2-2; the bases were loaded, and Jack Dove ’24 hit a two RBI single to right field, making the score 4-2. Another RBI single by Javier Izzary ’24, and a two RBI double by Charlie LaFreniere ’27, made the score 7-2. Ramapo never scored again, however,  Christian Fagnant ’24 was able to score off of a wild pitch in the seventh inning. Amherst won 8-2, starting off their season 1-0.

The Mammoths were supposed to face Ramapo again in a double header, but the match was canceled. The team will face SUNY Cobleskill this Sunday.