Field Hockey Loses to Second Seed Tufts in Tournament Quarterfinal

This past week, the Mammoths fell to both Trinity and Tufts by matching score lines of 2-0 to effectively end the team’s season.

The loss to the Bantams sealed Amherst’s fate as the seventh seed in the NESCAC tournament, which led to defeat by a dominant Jumbos squad in the conference tournament quarterfinals on Saturday.

On Wednesday evening, the Mammoths took on Trinity in their last regular season contest. After 14 minutes of play, the Bantams struck first off a goal from Nicole Quinlan. Amherst goaltender Katie Savage ’19 stopped both the initial shot and the first rebound but was powerless to keep out the second rebound, which Quinlan buried in the back of the net.

The Bantams wasted no time, extending the lead to two less than a minute later when Chandler Solimine took advantage of a fast break, poking the ball past a defender and beating Savage with intricate stick work. Entering the second half down by two, it was not until there were just over five minutes left in the game that the Mammoths managed to put together a great scoring chance. Shannon Tierney ’19 fired the ball into the arc, and Natalie Hobbs ’22 beautifully tipped the ball on net, but the Trinity goaltender was up to the task and made a quick last minute save to deny Amherst a goal.

With the clock winding down and Amherst pushing forward for a goal, Laura Schwartzman ’20 fired a pass to Franny Daniels ’21 who had lost her defender. Daniels fired a shot towards the goal but it rang off the pipe, and with the miss the Mammoths’ hopes of winning the game disappeared.

In the first round of the NESCAC tournament, Amherst had to travel to Medford, Massachusetts to take on the second-seeded Jumbos. Although the game was pushed back to Sunday because of inclement weather, the Jumbos were not thrown off by the change whatsoever and opened the scoring just 11:45 into the game, when Hanaa Malik fired a shot past Savage on a corner play. In the second half, both teams wrestled to gain control of the momentum. The Mammoths came daringly close to knotting the scoreline several times. In particular, Amherst gained three consecutive corner chances midway through the second half, but the Jumbos netminder denied their efforts.

It was a well-fought game from both sides for the remainder of regulation, but Tufts that took advantage with just 5:40 left to secure their victory at 2-0, ending the Mammoths season.

Although the Amherst season hasn’t officially ended yet, the Mammoths have a miniscule chance to win an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. Assuming there is no miracle, Amherst will finish its season with a record of 10-6 overall and a conference mark of 5-5.