Women’s Hockey Splits Weekend Series With Trinity with Rout and Close Loss

The women’s ice hockey team emerged from this weekend with a split of its two home matches against NESCAC rival Trinity, winning on Friday before losing on Saturday. With the win and loss, Amherst now boasts a 2-2-1 record with a 1-2-1 mark in conference play.

On Friday evening, the Mammoths picked up right where they left off after their win over New England College last Tuesday, turning in their best offensive effort of the early season.

Five different players scored for Amherst in a 5-0 rout of the Bantams.

Laura Schmidlein ’19 wasted no time putting Amherst on the board, scoring her first goal of the season just 1:23 into the first period. After her first attempt was saved by Trinity goalie Kai-Lilly Karpman, Schmidlein attacked the loose rebound and buried it in the back of the net before Karpman could react.

In the second period, the floodgates opened up for the Mammoths. Katelyn Pantera ’19 struck first, assisted by Jamie McNamara ’19 and Jocelyn Hunyadi ’19. After serving a two-minute penalty for slashing, Sarah Wagner ’19 returned to the ice and immediately extended the lead with an unassisted goal.

Kaitlin Hoang ’21 followed up with Amherst’s third goal of the period just two minutes after Wagner’s, and Katie Savage ’19 capped off the dominant performance with one last goal halfway through the third, assisted by Emma Flynn ’21.

The Mammoths’ dominant offensive performance was matched by a stellar defensive outing. Caitlin Walker ’22 picked up her first win in net for Amherst and did so in a dominant fashion, stonewalling the Trinity offense with 21 saves. The rest of the lineup aided in this effort, as the Mammoths blocked 13 shots over the course of the game. Amherst also did a fantastic job on the penalty kill, forcing Trinity to go 0-4 on power play attempts.

Amherst’s Friday night dominance could not be parlayed into Saturday success, as the Mammoths fell to Trinity 3-1 in the second game of the series. The game started off with a band, as the Bantams found themselves on a breakaway just a minute into the game, only for Walker to deny them in net.

Off the rebound, Amherst quickly transitioned up the ice and Mia DelRosso ’21 managed to slot the puck into the back of the net to give Amherst the early one-goal lead.

Trinity, however, evened the score at one apiece with a goal by Bailey McKeon at the end of the first. The second period saw plenty of hard-fought hockey, with a total of six penalties and just 15 total shots between the two teams. Unfortunately, Amherst failed to keep up the intensity in the final frame, as Trinity notched two third period goals to claim the 3-1 win.

The Mammoths will seek to rebound from the tough loss to Trinity when they take to the ice at Orr Rink for two non-conference home games this upcoming weekend.

Amherst will host Elmira College on Friday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. before taking on State University of New York Oswego at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 8.