No. 13 Mammoths Shut Out Springfield in First Half to Cruise to 13-3 Victory

AMHERST, Mass. – The home team shut out the Pride offense in the first half and eight different Mammoths found the back of the net in an all around team effort as the No. 13 Amherst College women's lacrosse team handed Springfield College it first loss of the season, 13-3 in non-conference battle Tuesday afternoon at Pratt Field at Lehrman Stadium.

Wit the win, Amherst picks up its first victory of 2019 and improves to 1-1 on the season, while Springfield falls to 3-1 overall. Amherst returns to action this Saturday, March 9 when they travel to Bowdoin College for a 12 p.m. NESCAC bout.

Talia Land '20 racked up seven saves and the Mammoths potted six unanswered goals in the first half
to give the home team a comfortable lead at the break.

Getting Amherst on the board 5:50 into the contest, Katherine Malone'20 powered Claire Dunbar's '21 dish from behind the net into the top left corner before Dunbar doubled the Mammoths lead with a free position score 5:15 later.

Striking twice in less than a minute, sophomores Isabelle Sennett and Rebecca Wistreich each beat the Pride netminder on impressive individual effort plays at the 13:11 and 12:22 marks, respectively, to extend the home team's lead to 4-0.

Closing out the opening stanza in style, Amherst took advantage of two Springfield yellow cards to pot two player-up scores, with Dunbar converting on an assist from Leah Ritterband '21 with 10:09 on the clock and Cammie Cho '21 powering a free position shot into the nylon four minutes later to push the Mammoths lead to 6-0.

Continuing to hold momentum to start the second half, the home team added five more unanswered goals to set the score at 11-0.

Kaitlyn Haase '19 and Hannah Gustafson '21 combined to tally the first four scores after intermission, with Haase needing just 20 seconds to find the back of net.

Dunbar picked up her fourth point of the day 16 seconds later, dishing out an assist to Hannah Gustafson '21 before Haase and Gustafson once again struck back-to-back to push the score to 10-0.

First-year Becky Kendall finished off Amherst's unanswered run, registering her first collegiate goal at the 17:13 mark with an assist from Maia Noyes '21 following a free position attempt.

Breaking through with 14:39 on the clock, Allie Goddard found Taylor Pichel for the score to make it 11-1 before Goddard dished out a second assist to Katie Campbell three minutes later.

Amherst responded with a 2-0 run of there own, as Dunbar teamed up with Annie Cohen '19 at the 3:51 mark and Malone teamed up with Ashley Tucker '22 with 2:45 remaining.

Springfield logged what stood as the final marker of the contest with 1:10 to play, with Katie Stallone registering an unassisted score and the Mammoths sealing the 13-3 victory.

BY THE NUMBERS

• In between the pipes, Land (1-1) racked up nine saves in 48:01 to earn the win for Amherst, while Caroline Fischer '22 made one stop in the final 11:59 in relief. Brenna Keefe (3-1) took the loss for the Pride, recording eight saves.
• Dunbar lead the Mammoths offense with three goals and two helpers for five points, while Sennett sand Noyes each logged three draw controls.
• With five ground balls and three caused turnovers, Sabrina Solow '19 led Amherst in both categories for the second consecutive game, while Gustafson also chipped in three forced TO's.
• Campbell led the Pride with one goal on four shot attempts, while Taylor Kane and Abby Wylie each chipped in three ground balls. Kane led all players with a game-high six draw controls.
• Amherst owned the advantage in draw controls and ground balls, 10-8 and 19-15, and finished 19-for-21 on clears, while Springfield went 14-for-18 on clear attempts.