Field Hockey Records Victories Over Endicott, Williams and MIT

After a heart-breaking loss to Middlebury the previous Saturday, the field hockey team found a spark in non-conference play last Thursday night in a contest against the Endicott College Gulls. Building off a strong last 20 minutes in the game against the Panthers, Amherst wasted no time in finding the back of the net. Natalie Hobbs ’22 robbed a Gulls defender of the ball, barreled towards the net, and fired a shot past the Endicott goaltender to give Amherst a 1-0 lead just 9:48 into the game.

Fewer than 10 minutes later, however, Endicott’s Cameron Molinare managed to tip a shot into the far-right corner following a penalty corner to knot the affair at one goal apiece.

With the first half winding down, Amherst’s Emery Sorvino ’19 seized an opportunity after an Endicott turnover to take the lead 2-1 going into halftime.

The second half was full of back-and-forth play, before Franny Daniels ’21 scored 18 minutes into the period, burying a rebound to increase the lead to 3-1. Amherst goaltender, Katie Savage ’19 recorded five saves for the Mammoths in the win.

Later in the week, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, the Mammoths turned their sights to Williams, which entered the match ranked 12th in the nation. Looking to move to 3-2 on the season, Amherst fell behind 24 minutes into the contest when Williams’ Meredith Wright capitalized on a penalty stroke. Increasing the lead just seven minutes later, Siobhan Morrissey took advantage of an Amherst defensive mistake and fired a shot past Savage, making the score 2-0.

With a minute remaining in the first half, Hobbs fed a beautiful pass to Daniels, who fired it past the Williams goaltender, leaving Amherst with a manageable one-goal deficit heading into the locker-room.

Starting the second half with a vengeance, Cody rocketed a shot off a corner to tie the game at 2-2 with 23:22 remaining in regulation.

Leading by example, Kendall Codey ’19 then tallied her second goal of the game after receiving a beautiful pass from Shannon Tierney ’19 to give the Mammoths their first lead of the game with seven minutes left to play.

With the Ephs doing everything they could offensively, Williams’ Isabel Perry tied the game at 3-3 off a shot from a penalty corner with just under four minutes before the buzzer.

Spectators expected to see a sudden-death overtime, but Laura Schwartzman ’20 had other plans. Off a feed from Tierney with a minute-and-a-half left to play, Schwartzman fired home the go-ahead goal to clinch the 4-3 win.

“Williams ended our season last year so we were excited to get a chance to play them again and I think that energy really came through on the field throughout the game,” Schwartzman said after the game. “It was an awesome team effort and we’re excited to get our first conference win for the season.”

Amherst then faced off against another tough competitor in the no. 19 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Mammoths did all of their damage in the first half, tallying three goals and peppering the MIT goalie with 11 shots over the period. In the second period, the Mammoths’ offensive pressure did not let up, but they were unable to add another goal. MIT scored two goals to put pressure on the Mammoths, but Amherst held on for the 3-2 victory.

Amherst will next face off in a home contest against no. 3 Tufts on Saturday, Sept. 29