AMHERST, MA – The Amherst College women's lacrosse team played host to NESCAC and Little Three archrival Williams College this afternoon at Gooding Field in Amherst, Mass. The Lord Jeffs held off a late charge from the Ephs for an 8-7 win to leap-frog Williams in the NESCAC standings.

Amherst opened the scoring when Mary noonan (West Roxbury, MA) beat her defender with a nice move, and placed the ball in the top corner. After two more Amherst goals by Hannah Walker (Greenwich, CT) and Amy Craig (Denver, CO), Williams answered with one of their own. The Eph response came when a loose ball in front of the Amherst goal was hit in by Julia Nawrocki.

Moments later Amherst answered right back, when noonan found a streaking Craig for her second of the game with a feed from behind the goal.

Williams Margie Fulton tallied a free position goal with 12:23 to play in the first half. Walker answered with her second goal of the game, and then just nine seconds later noonan took the ensuing draw control and sliced through the Ephs defense for a great finish from the crease. Williams and Amherst each added one more goal before the end of the half, making the score at the break 7-3 in Amherst's favor.

Williams started the half with three consecutive goals by Britt Spackman, Fulton, Anne Marie Burke to bring the Ephs within a single score. With nine minutes left in the regulation, Amherst pushed the margin back to two, when Craig completed her hat-trick after received a great pass from Walker.

Amherst first-year goalie Lamia Harik (Rye Brook, NY) helped protect the lead with repeated saves down the stretch, including an FPS save with just over five minutes left in the game.

Amherst faced a flurry of shots for the rest of the game, which resulted in Williams netting one more goal and putting another shot off the post. The Ephs came close to finding the equalizer, but ended the day with Amherst taking the one goal victory 8-7.

Harik finished the game with 14 saves, while at the other end of the field Amherst was lead by Walker and noonan each with two goals and two assists. Williams was led by Fulton, who finished with three goals of her own. Amherst is now 5-3 on the year and 3-2 in NESCAC play, while the 6-3 Ephs drop to 3-3 in the conference. Amherst will return to action on Tuesday when they travel to face Wheaton College (MA).

2009-04-04