Field Hockey Beats Mount Holyoke But Loses to Bowdoin

The Amherst Mammoths opened their season in a promising fashion at home Thursday against the Mount Holyoke Lyons. The Mammoths wasted no time and just seven minutes into the game, Natalie Hobbs ’22 fed senior captain Megan Shea a beautiful pass through two defenders. Shea rifled a shot past the Lyons goalkeeper to record the Mammoths’ first goal of the season.

The Lyons responded less than a minute later to tie the game at 1-1, when Mount Holyoke’s Kristina Ramsden tipped a shot past Amherst goalie Katie Savage ’19.

In a fast, back-and-forth half, both teams created several scoring opportunities. Despite these chances, none were capitalized upon until the Mammoths won a penalty corner, in which Laura Schwartzman ’20 beautifully sent a pass to Kendall Codey ’19, who rocketed a shot straight through the back of the net to give the Mammoths a 2-1 lead going into the half.

The Mammoths then crushed any hopes the Lyons had of a comeback by tallying two goals in the first 20 minutes of the second half. Hobbs deflected a shot from Schwartzman to score her first goal as a Mammoth, while the second goal came on another penalty corner, as Schwartzman again connected with Codey to make the score 4-1.

Other notable performances came from midfield powerhouse Anna Agathis ’21, who tallied a game-high four shots on goal. The defensive line of Grace Johnson ’22, Codey, and Beth Williamson ’22 was a dominating force that helped the Mammoths open the season 1-0.

After this impressive display, the Mammoths trekked to NESCAC powerhouse Bowdoin on Saturday hoping to build off their momentum from Thursday night.

Despite their best efforts, the Mammoths were dealt their first loss of the season by a final score of 6-2. Going down 2-0 within the first 10 minutes, Amherst never gave up. Williamson blasted her first collegiate goal past the Bowdoin goalkeeper off an assist from Agathis during a penalty corner.

However, midway through the second half, the Mammoths found themselves in a 5-1 deficit. This did not prevent Emery Sorvino ’19 from battling hard to pick off a pass and send Franny Daniels ’21 flying through the defenders on a break-a-way. Daniels capitalized to make the score 5-2 with 10 minutes left in regulation play. Bowdoin, however, had the last say with a goal that made the final score 6-2 with just seconds remaining on the clock.

Shea remains optimistic despite Saturday’s loss. “Playing difficult competition at the beginning of the season helps us figure out what we need to work on as a team,” said Shea. “Now we have a strong sense of what we need to do as individuals and as a team during practice this week in order to go into our Middlebury game on Saturday feeling confident.”

Amherst will hope to rebound from this tough loss on Saturday, when the Mammoths will travel to take on Middlebury at 11 a.m.