AMHERST, MA - Two field hockey powers will lock horns on Tuesday night when Amherst College visits non-league rival Springfield in a showdown of nationally ranked regional rivals.
Amherst enters the game with perfect 3-0 record, after a three-game opening-week sweep of Colby College, M.I.T. and Bates College. Meanwhile, sixth ranked Springfield has been similarly impressive with a 4-1 record, coming off a 5-0 shutout win at NESCAC power Middlebury College.
Amherst head coach Chris Paradis sees the matchup as an excellent early-season test for her talented but youthful Jeffs.
"We're still coming together as a team because we're young, but we're coming off a shutout, which is a confidence builder," Paradis noted. "Springfield is always athletic and tough. It's important because Springfield is one of the better teams on our non-conference schedule.
Leading the way for 10th-ranked Amherst is senior co-captain midfielder Gretchen Bowe (Hampstead, NH), who has scored in each of the Jeffs' three games en route to team-highs in goals (3) and assists (2). Named an NFHCA first-team All-American after Amherst's Cinderella run to the 1999 NCAA championship game, Bowe netted the game-winner late in the second half of the Jeffs' hard-fought 1-0 win at Bates College on Saturday.
Defensively, the Jeffs have been anchored by the quartet of juniors Anne Close (Limekiln, PA) and Laurie Smith (Wilmington, DE) and sophomores Kristin Harrison (Dedham, MA) and Molly O'Connor (Baltimore, MD), who have been stellar in front of junior netminder Beth Sensing (Hockessin, DE). Sensing, who posted 11 shutouts during the 1999 season, has allowed just one goal in the Jeffs' first three games, stopping 16 of the 17 shots thus far.
The Jeffs and Springfield, half of the 1999 NCAA Final Four field (along with SUNY-Cortland and the College of New Jersey), have only met twice before, one meeting during each of the last two seasons.
In 1998, the teams met in the semifinals of the ECAC tournament, where 100 minutes of scoreless hockey led to penalty strokes, with Springfield outshooting the Jeffs 3-0. Their first regular season meeting, on September 22 of last year, met with almost the exact same result, with the Pride holding on for a 3-1 penalty-stroke victory after regulation and overtime produced a scoreless tie.
