MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - Amherst College junior Cathy Poor (Harwich Port, MA) scored twice, including the game-winner 3:53 into the first sudden-death overtime, to lift the visiting Jeffs to a 2-1 victory over host Wesleyan University on Saturday, clinching Amherst's first outright Little III title since 1997.

The Jeffs, who entered the game in control of their own post-season destiny, could guarantee themselves a home game in the first round of next week's first-ever NESCAC conference tournament with a win over the Cardinals, and, early on, they looked destined to do exactly that. Poor converted a feed from classmate Hallison Putnam (Lexington, KY) in the 17th minute, as the Jeffs outshot the Cardinals 7-1 in the opening 45 minutes.

Despite Amherst's offensive domination early, however, the Cardinals - playing their last game of the season - came out with an offensive surge after halftime, culminating in their lone goal of the game, a deflection off a Flo Anito (Chatham, MA) corner kick by Tamara Becher (Croton, NY) at 54:53 that knotted the game at one.

Becher's goal seemed to re-energize the Amherst offense, which dominated the next 25 minutes behind the stellar play of Putnam and classmate Sarah O'Keefe (West Hartford, CT). O'Keefe had a pair of solid shot opportunities from the left wing, but one skidded just past the right post, and the other was stopped by Cardinal goalie Ella Naef (Pacific Palisades, CA).

After the Jeffs were unable to break through, the Cardinals retaliated with a series of offensive runs, culminating in their third and final shot of the game - a blast from the top right corner of the box in the 88th minute that Amherst goalie Brooke Diamond (Longmeadow, MA) punched up, off the crossbar, and back out into play where it was cleared. Diamond's lone save of the afternoon would be Wesleyan's last good scoring chance of the day. Despite outshooting the Cardinals 20-3 in regulation, the Jeffs found themselves heading to overtime for the first time this year.

There, Poor, who saw limited playing time due to a nagging foot injury, provided the heroics. After a Wesleyan foul 10 yards inside the midfield line, Amherst sophomore Kate Shipley (Newton, MA) teed-up a free kick into the penalty box, where Poor got a head on it, deflecting it past Naef for the game-winner.

With the overtime goal, her 25th career tally - and first in overtime - Poor also broke Katie Hersey '99's single-season scoring record, giving the junior a NESCAC-best 11 goals in just 11 games played. The Jeffs (9-4-1, 5-3-1 NESCAC) finish their regular season with an impressive four-game win streak, locking up the four seed in the first-ever NESCAC Tournament, where they will host Bates College, the five seed, in a quarterfinal matchup on Tuesday. The Bobcats defeated the Jeffs in Maine, 1-0, in their lone meeting of the season on September 16. Wesleyan finishes its 2000 campaign with a 2-10-2 record, 0-8-1 in the NESCAC.