Jeffs gain strength with numbers

Last season’s highlights included defeating Middlebury College 140-103 and breaking 14 of 23 college swimming records, including all five relay events. The only loss, 141.5-155.5, came at Williams College when the Ephs’ sheer numbers overpowered the smaller Jeff squad. At the NESCAC Championships last year Amherst placed second with the majority of the team contributing points. Brittany Sasser ’08 tied the 200-yard individual medley meet record and set two backstroke conference records. Julie K

Women's tennis serves up banner week

Amherst’s victory in Williamstown extended the Jeffs’ winning streak over the Ephs to four matches-the Jeffs last lost to their hated opponents on Oct. 10, 2003. The Jeffs started this fall’s edition on the right foot, taking all three doubles matches. Sophomore Alicia Menezes and senior tri-captain Kristen Raverta convincingly won first doubles 8-2. Sophomores Jennifer Murphy and Monica Snyder took second doubles in a close 9-7 match, and senior tri-captain Hadley Miller and sophomore Laura Ste

Women's tennis crushes a pair of NESCAC Vacationland foes

First thing Sunday morning the Jeffs took two of three doubles matches from the visiting Polar Bears. Sophomore Alicia Menezes and senior tri-captain Kristen Raverta, who combined to win the ITA New England doubles tournament the previous weekend, paired for an 8-2 victory at first doubles. Senior tri-captain Hadley Miller teamed with sophomore Laura Stein for an 8-4 third doubles win. Sophomore Monica Snyder’s regular doubles partner, junior Katie Hudson, is out with an injury, so she was pair

Women's tennis starts familiar road toward championships

The Jeffs finished their 2004-2005 season with a 12-3 record, led by senior quad-captains Tristan Hedrick, Rachel Holt, Liz Libert and Erin Murphy. In the fall, Alicia Menezes ’08 won the singles competition at the ITA New England championships and teamed up with Holt to take the doubles crown as well. Holt later received the ITA New England Senior Player of the Year award while Menezes was named ITA New England Rookie of the Year. Later in the fall, the team placed third at the New England Wom

Women record best-ever finish: Rookie Sasser nabs pair of National titles

The 200-yard freestyle relay of tri-captain Liz Chiang ’05, Sasser, Lisa Pritchard ’08 and Rebecca Stein ’05 placed ninth overall and won the consolation finals in 1:37.01, while Sasser finished fifth in the 200-yard individual medley. The smashing of College records began in the 50-yard freestyle, where Chiang sprinted to fourth place, replacing the old College record with a mark of 23.82 in the morning preliminaries. “I dropped .41 seconds in the 50 free,” said Chiang, a significant cut in su

Women's Swimming and Diving: First-year Sasser shines at NESCACs

“Considering that we are rarely able to field a full squad at NESCACs simply because we lack the numbers, we were thrilled to beat Middlebury this year, a team double our size,” said tri-captain Michelle McCreary ’05. Friday began with the 200-yard freestyle relay, in which the Amherst “A” team-tri-captain Liz Chiang ’05, Sasser, Lisa Pritchard ’08 and Rebecca Stein ’05-tied the College record of 1:36.54 and earned a provisional National qualification, also known as a B-cut. Jennifer Lewkowitz

Senior swimmers leave legacies in, out of pool

Women’s Seniors Tri-captain Liz Chiang, a sprint freestyler and backstroker, holds Amherst’s 50-yard backstroke record. Chiang went to Nationals as a first-year for relays, and as a junior she qualified individually in addition to swimming the backstroke legs of the NESCAC Championship-winning 200-yard medley relay and the NCAA third-place 400-yard medley relay. “Swimming has sculpted the collegiate I am more than any other one thing over the last four years,” said Chiang. “I’m a better leader

Women win season's final contest

To open the meet, Lisa Pritchard ’08, Jill Wyrick ’05, Piper Pettersen ’07 and Julie Kim ’08 won the 200-yard medley relay in 1:52.66. The “B” relay, comprised of tri-captain Michelle McCreary ’05, Hilary Stockbridge ’05, Gretchen Sisson ’06 and Alexis Johnston ’05 took third. The Jeff “C” relay of Natalie Dyer ’07, Suzie Luft ’08, Mia Anderson ’06 and Lisa Rubinger ’07 defeated two Pride relay teams to place fourth, just 1.5 seconds behind the “B” relay, a testament to the team’s depth. Jasmin

Jeffs dominate Conn., MIT in Cambridge

Tri-captain Liz Chiang ’05, Jill Wyrick ’05, Piper Pettersen ’07 and Lisa Pritchard ’08 opened the meet by winning the 200-yard medley relay with a provisional national qualifying time of 1:51.98. Tri-captain Michelle McCreary ’05 swam a season-best 10:53.19 to place second overall in the 1000-yard freestyle. She was followed by tri-captain Katie Massopust ’05 in 10:54.67, another near season best, and Alexis Johnston ’05 in 10:57.97. The trio swept MIT and went two-three-four against Conn. In

Women's swim stays undefeated

The meet opened with the 400-yard medley relay. Sasser swam the opening, backstroke leg for the “A” relay to earn her first of three NCAA A-cuts, which guarantee an invitation to Nationals. Her split of 57.90 also broke the Amherst record of 58.58, set in 1998. The relay team continued with fast performances from Jill Wyrick ’05, Piper Pettersen ’07 and Becca Stein ’05. Together their 3:57.31 first-place finish made an NCAA B-cut and shattered the Natatorium record of 4:03.88. The “B” relay team

Women's swimming surges ahead

By beating Wesleyan, the women are on their way to repeating as Little Three champions. Before the 2003 campaign, the team last claimed that title in 1987. This season’s deciding meet will take place at Williams College on Jan. 8. The meet opened with the 50-yard backstroke, which tri-captain Liz Chiang ’05 won handily. Jill Wyrick ’05 led the 50-yard breaststrokers with a school record-breaking 31.62 and second place. She was followed closely by first-years Brittany Sasser and Suzie Luft in th

Swimming: Women plan to repeat undefeated feat

Last season, in addition to defeating NESCAC rival Middlebury College, Amherst shut down NESCAC powerhouse Williams College, shattering the Ephs’ 103-dual-meet winning streak and paving the way to Amherst’s own undefeated season with a record of 10-0. The women placed third at NESCACs and eighth at Nationals. At NCAAs, the 400-yard medley relay team of Liz Chiang ’05, Jill Wyrick ’05, Piper Pettersen ’07 and Rebecca Stein ’05 placed third. This season, although still small by NESCAC standards,

Women's tennis: Women end successful fall with third-place finish at NEWITT

The women competed in six singles and three doubles flights at the New England regional tournament. Quad-captain Rachel Holt ’05 and Alicia Menezes ’08 were in Florida for the ITA National Championships, so everyone stepped up two brackets. Senior quad-captain Erin Murphy won the number-four flight, where she was seeded fourth. After two dominant 6-0, 6-0 wins, she fought to a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 victory in the semifinals against the second seed. Murphy then won the finals 6-2, 7-6 (3). Monica Snyde

Women's tennis is dominant in weekend doubleheader

Amherst and cross-town rival UMass began play on Sept. 21, but the match was called due to darkness. On Friday the teams finished what they had begun, and UMass took its season opener, 7-0. Quad-captain Rachel Holt ’05 and Alicia Menezes ’08, the newly-crowned Omni ITA doubles champions, earned the sole Jeff victory, taking first doubles 8-2. Quad-captain Erin Murphy ’05 had a close three-set loss at sixth singles, 2-6, 6-3, 6-7 (8-7). Kristen Raverta ’06 and Katie Hudson ’07 paired at second d

First-years help women's tennis dominate Wesleyan

Kristen Raverta ’06 and quad-captain Rachel Holt ’05 swept number one and two singles, 8-0, respectively. Two first-years, Alicia Menezes at third singles and Laura Stein at fifth singles, each dropped just one game to win 8-1. “It was great to see the freshmen come out fired up and play well in their first collegiate match,” said Holt. “It’s exciting to be a part of a dedicated team, especially since tennis is usually an individual sport,” said Menezes. “Most of the time it is just you and t

Women's tennis: NCAA runners-up return to court

Kristen Raverta ’06 called last season “a year of achievement, both as a team and for many of the individual players as well.” Last fall, Amherst got off to a 4-0 start before falling in a close match to Williams College, to whom they placed second at the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament at the end of the fall season. Raverta won the number three singles flight and teamed with captain Wallis Molchen ’04 to win the third doubles as well. In the spring the women won three of

Women's tennis earns convincing victory over Tufts, 7-2

Yesterday, Amherst won a crucial match, besting Tufts by a score of 7-2 despite being forced indoors due to inclement weather. The Jeffs’ record now stands at 12-3. Tufts is currently ranked third nationally and first in the Northeast region, considerably better than Amherst’s 11th national and fourth regional rankings. Last year, however, Amherst defeated Tufts 6-3, and this time around also favored the Jeffs. One of the highlights of the match against Emory came from Kristen Raverta ’06. Rav

Men's tennis team wins three in a row after dropping pair

Amherst began the spring on March 24 against a visiting Boston College squad. The Eagles defeated the Jeffs 5-2. Amherst’s two points came from co-captains Max Rettig ’05 and Rob Feeley ’04, who won the third and fifth singles matches, respectively. Second and fourth singles players Danny Babkes ’06 and Jeff Lawrence ’07 were both defeated in close three-set matches that could have gone either way. Jon Godsall ’06 and Lawrence paired to win second doubles 8-2, but Boston earned the doubles poin

Women's tennis sweeps Bates, Brandeis; Jeffs improve to 10-2

“Brandeis and Bates were good matches to start off our season here in the Northeast, in that they weren’t too tough, but made us play,” said Hadley Miller ’06. For the first match of the day, the Jeffs faced the Brandeis Judges, who are ranked 25th nationally and seventh in the Northeast. Tristan Hedrick ’05 led the team in the first singles position, pulling out a tough win in an extremely close match, 5-7, 6-4 in a 10-4 tiebreaker. Kristen Raverta ’06 won second singles in another hard-fought

Women's swim and dive takes seventh at nationals

Kenyon College won its third straight national title and 20th in 21 years with 507 points, and NESCAC champion Williams College placed fourth with 289. Amherst finished just ahead of ninth-place Middlebury College. “The women were on and off this weekend, but when they were on, they were really on,” said co-captain Ashley Simonsen ’04. With seven swimmers returning, including three first-years and a number of near-misses in qualifying for finals, Amherst should only improve in 2005. The meet o

Women's tennis wins three over Cali schools

Hadley Miller ’06 remarked that the trip was “successful in that we got off to a great start and beat the teams that we felt like we should’ve beaten.” On March 15, the women swept seventh-ranked Pomona-Pitzer College 9-0, without dropping a single set to the 4-5 Sagehens. Tristan Hedrick ’05 returned to the first singles position after a fall spent recuperating from an arm injury and played to a 6-2, 6-3 victory. Kristen Raverta ’06 won second singles and Rachel Holt ’05 took third singles. M

Men's tennis boasts a strong, youthful group of returnees

The men began the fall season by defeating Salve Regina University, 6-1. The highlight of the fall season came early on, as the Jeffs won the ECAC North Championship, Sept. 19-21, at Vassar College, edging Div. I opponent Lehigh University. Josh Rilla ’06, Danny Babkes ’06, co-captain Max Rettig ’05 and Jon Godsall ’06 won the first, third, fourth and fifth singles flights, respectively. In addition, Scott Bronner ’06 and Karti Subramanian ’07 were victorious in the doubles championship. The win

Women swim undefeated for first time in history

This year’s seniors are distance freestyler Sarah Dobbs, co-captain butterflier Jaime Fisher, who returned to the pool mid-season after an eye injury, co-captain butterflier Ashley Simonsen and breaststroker Bea Wallace. The seniors reflected on their final season. “10-0 is pretty hard to believe,” said Fisher. “What makes it better is that we were able to share the success with the [9-0] men’s team.” The other seniors also expressed their enjoyment at being a part of this talented group. “I a

Women's swim team finds strength in numbers

Last year, the team finished the regular season 8-2, placing third at NESCACs and eighth at Nationals, their best NCAA finish since 1999. The team’s biggest loss will be that of senior co-captain and two-time 200-yard butterfly national champion Morgan Bayer ’03. Amherst is eager to build upon last season’s success. “I think we performed so well last season because we focused so much on team unity and cohesion,” said Liz Chiang ’05. ” And that’s carrying us into this year.” This year, senior c

Women's tennis drops heartbreaker

Amherst began the fall by posting 8-1 wins over Trinity and Skidmore Colleges the weekend of Sept. 13. One of the top players, Tristan Hedrick ’05, was injured, requiring some temporary lineup changes. The team had no problem with the rearrangements, showing great depth while beating Wesleyan University 9-0 on Sept. 20. On the weekend of Sept. 26, the Jeffs participated in the prestigious Omni ITA Tournament held at Bowdoin College. Rachel Holt ’05 led the Amherst contingent, placing second in

Women's tennis shuts out Bowdoin, Colby

During Saturday’s match against Colby (0-4), the players moved inside and outside as the rain came and went. “The change of venues was tough because it’s hard to get a rhythm going,” explained Erin Murphy ’05. “But we were flexible and able to adapt to the conditions.” Rachel Holt ’05 continued her success in first singles, winning 6-2, 6-1. Tristan Hedrick ’05, Hadley Miller ’06 and Katie Hudson ’07 lost just one game each. The doubles team of captain Wallis Molchen ’04 and Kristen Raverta ’06

Holt leads tennis team to solid showing at ITA

The star performer for Amherst this weekend was junior Rachel Holt. Holt, who was the event’s defending champion, made her way through a very challenging draw before finally succumbing to top-seed Diana Goldman of Trinity College, 3-6, 6-1 (10-3). Holt’s match against Goldman came a mere 45 minutes after Holt emerged victorious from a grueling three-hour match against Holt’s rival from Williams College, Stephanie Hall. Hall defeated Tristan Hedrick ’05 in the quarterfinals and had beaten Holt in

Women's tennis enjoys opening weekend

On Saturday, Sept. 13, they traveled to Trinity College (0-2) where they swept the three doubles matches. “I think being up 3-0 [Saturday] after the doubles gave us the edge in confidence and settled any nerves,” said captain Wallis Molchen ’04. Rachel Holt ’05 and Tristan Hedrick ’05 are an experienced pair, but the other two teams are newly formed. Hadley Miller ’06 and Erin Murphy ’05 won a close 8-6 second doubles decision. Coach Jackie Bagwell explained, “Hadley and Erin are a good combina

Women's tennis looks to generate excitement

In the fall of 2002, Amherst won the team portion of the New England Championships. Individual champions included Kristen Raverta ’06 at first singles, Tristan Hedrick ’05 and Rachel Holt ’05 at first doubles, co-captain Paige Lawrence ’03 and Raverta at second doubles and Wallis Molchen ’04 and Erin Murphy ’05 at third doubles. “If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that we would finish fourth in the nation I would probably have laughed. I had no idea how much the team had i

Women's swimming places eighth at Nationals

The first day began with the 500-yard freestyle. Co-captain Morgan Bayer ’03 placed 16th in the morning, qualifying for finals where she sliced off enough time to place 15th with a 5:05.93. This was only the first part of what co-captain Rory Miller ’03 described as Bayer’s “amazing meet.” Jill Wyrick ’05 began what was to be her own incredible meet with the 200-yard individual medley. She swam a time of 2:08.34 in the morning, placing sixth. Teammate Hilary Stockbridge ’05 placed 49th with a t

Bayer, Miller, Adams lead Jeffs to 169-54 victory over Union

Adams is a thesis-writing computer science major and competes in backstroke. Bayer, a distance freestyler, a two-time national 200-yard butterfly champion, and a three-time All-American and All-NESCAC selection, is majoring in psychology. Miller is a thesis-writing sociology major and distance freestyler. Many parents and families were in attendance to support the athletes. “[The end] hasn’t really hit me yet, with NESCACs still coming.” said Adams. “I’m a little sad, and sort of living in a st

Women dominate weekend meets

The Jeffs began their meet with a strong start with the 1000-yard freestyle. Co-captain Morgan Bayer ’03 placed first, while Katie Massopust ’05 took third and co-captain Rory Miller ’03 finished fourth. Massopust and Miller posted season-best times. Bayer, Mia Anderson ’06 and Ashley Simonsen ’04 swept the 200-yard butterfly. In 1m and 3m meter diving, Kate Shaw ’05 took first and Kristin Boyd ’05 took second with season-best scores. In a great race, Jill Wyrick ’05 took first in the 200-yard