The Recap: All The Sports You Missed This Week
Men’s Basketball The men’s basketball team continued its run of solid form on Saturday, besting Little Three rival Wesleyan by the score of 75-54 in a matchup of the NESCAC’s two top scoring defenses. Garrett Day ’21 was the standout performer for the Mammoths, scoring a career-high 29 points to lead the Mammoths’ offense and all players. Day was a stellar 7-12 from three point range, to going along with four assists and two rebounds on the night. With the victory, the Mammoths moved to 14-6 on the season and 4-2 in conference play. The Mammoths have yet another conference matchup on tap next week when they travel to Bowdoin for an away contest.
Women’s Basketball In what was the game of the season thus far for the Amherst women’s basketball team, the Mammoths barely managed to squeak past Little Three rivals Wesleyan in a 53-49 victory last Saturday evening. After an offensive explosion in the first quarter that saw the Mammoths trailing 19-18, the game settled into a hard-fought defensive battle. Despite this playing to Amherst’s strengths on defense and efficiency, the Cardinals were able to take a three point lead into the final quarter of play.
With 25 seconds remaining in this crucial conference matchup, the Mammoths were down 49-48. However, Hannah Fox ’20 took control of the game in those final seconds. Wesleyan fouled Fox twice, and she sunk four free throws to put the Mammoths up 52-49. Wesleyan then turned the ball over, and fouled Madeline Eck ’20, who sunk an additional free throw and gave the Mammoths a stunning 53-49 victory. With the win, the Mammoths move to 17-3 on the season.
*Men’s Hockey * The men’s hockey team fought Wesleyan to a close 1-1 tie last Saturday. Less than 15 seconds into the game, the Mammoths snuck a goal past the Cardinals’ goalkeeper. Joey Lupo ’20 scored his fifth goal of the season to put the Mammoths up 1-1 off of assists from fellow senior Noah Gilreath and Sean Wrenn ’22. Lupo redirected a shot from Gilreath into the back of the net to give the Mammoths’ one of their fastest goals ever.
Wesleyan responded soon thereafter, scoring in the first period to even the score at one apiece. From there, the goalies took over, with Amherst’s Giancarlo Ventre ’20 registering 28 saves on the night. His Wesleyan counterpart racked up 46 stops for the Mammoths on the night.
Women’s Hockey For the second week in a row, the NESCAC women’s hockey player of the week was Amherst first year forward Carley Daly. With the achievement, Daly becomes the first Mammoth to clinch back to back player of the week nods since the award was started in 2001-2002. Daly contributed to two of the three goals the team scored on the weekend, assisting on the game-winner against Wesleyan. The next day, Daly continued her scoring streak, scoring the game’s only goal in a 1-0 shut out win against Wesleyan. Daly currently leads the Mammoths with nine goals on the season, and ranks first on the team with 16 points.
*Men’s Swim and Dive * Sean Mebust ’20 swam in his final home meet at Pratt Pool last Sunday, but he will leave having left his mark; the Senior, in the season’s final dual meet of the year against Springfield College, set two pool records and took home NESCAC men’s swimmer of the week honors. Mebust began the weekend with a meet against MIT, wherein he was victorious in both the 100 and 200 yard breastroke events, finishing with times of 56.90 and 2:04.62, repsectively.
Swimming the very next day against Springfield, Mebust would better those times and set his pool records. Before his individual events, Mebust swam in the winning 200 yard medley relay. In his individual events, Mebust would again leave the meet with numerous victories. In the 50 yard breaststroke, he finished first with a time of 26.71. He knocked off his first record of the weekend in his next race, the 100 yard butterfly, finishing with a time of 56.35, beating the record that had stood since 2018. He finished with his second record as a part of the 200 freestyle relay in his final Pratt Pool swim.
As a team, the Mammoths fell to MIT 156.5-139.5, but finished the dual meet season on a high note with a 166-110 victory over Springfield. The men won every event except the one meter diving and the 500 yard freestyle.