AMHERST, Mass. – Notched at 3-3 with less than 10 minutes to play, senior Mary Margaret Stoll came up big for the Purple & White, corralling a rebound and sending it into the netting to lift the No. 15 Amherst College field hockey team past No. 20 Mount Holyoke, 4-3 in its season opener under the lights at Gooding Field.

With the win, the Purple & White move to 1-0 on the season, while the Lyons fall to 0-2 overall. Amherst returns to the turf on Saturday, Sept. 10 when they open conference play with an 11 a.m. tilt at No. 2 Bowdoin College. 

Mary Grace Cronin '18 needed just 4:46 to tally the Purple & White's first score of the season. Setting up on the backdoor on the right side of the goal, Cronin one-touched pass from Mary Margaret Stoll '17 over the goal line to give Amherst a 1-0 lead.

Holding momentum, Amherst doubled its lead two minutes later as senior Sara Culhane sent an unassisted blast from the top of the circle into the back corner of the net.

A Mount Holyoke goal at the 8:14 mark cut the Lyon deficit to one, however the Purple & White headed into intermission with a 3-1 lead as Kendall Codey '19 converted on a corner opportunity, collecting the ball from Cronin and rifling a shot past Liz DiCesare with a minute to play in the first half.

The Lyons responded with two unanswered goals in the second half to even the score at 3-3, however Stoll proved to be the difference maker in the outing, finding a rebound and beating the Mount Holyoke netminder with eight minutes to play to give Amherst a victory in its season opener.  

Amherst held the edge in shots and corner opportunities, 19-13 and 11-3, respectively, while Cronin led the Purple & White in shots on target with six.  Emily Horwitz '17 (1-0) registered six saves in between the pipes in the winning effort, while Liz DiCesare (0-2) made 12 saves for the Lyons in the loss.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS

• The first 35 minutes of the Amherst season started with a bang, as Amherst tallied scores on two of its first five shots and four goals would be scored between the two sides.
• Holding a 2-0 lead after both Cronin and Culhane found the back of the net in the first 6:48, Mount Holyoke cut the Amherst lead to one just under two minutes later as Colby Newsham found an open Charlotte Wagner on the back door for an easy tap in goal. 
• Mount Holyoke kept up the offensive pressure in their bid to even the matchup, forcing Horwitz to make several impressive plays midway through the half. A precise pass from center field gave Wagner a near breakaway with 15:54 on the clock, however Horwitz won the foot race, coming out to the top of the circle to kick the ball back towards midfield.
• Senior captain Sydney Watts also put in a strong defensive effort in Amherst's bid to keep the early lead, playing a 3-v-1 rush perfectly to force an off-angle shot from the left side of the field that was turned away by Horwitz.
• After 15 minutes of scoreless action Codey scored what proved to be a crucial goal for the Purple & White as she took advantage of Amherst's second corner opportunity of the game to make it a 3-1 contest heading into halftime.
• Kristina Ramsden began Mount Holyoke's second half comeback, making it a 3-2 game 11 minutes into the second half after finding the rebound in a scrum in front of the net and sending the ball into the goal.
• Cronin nearly tallied her second score of the game four minutes later, as she juked around the diving Lyon netminder, however defender Lisabella Olgaard was in the right place at the right time and was able to make the defensive save.
• The Lyons evened the score at 3-3 with 11 minutes to play as Sophie Perekslis sent a hard shot from just inside the circle past Horwitz.
• Amherst responded six minutes later to score the game's final goal and earn the victory with Stoll finding Caroline Fiore's '18 rebound and sending a shot into the net.
• The final threat of the game from either side came with 3:44 to play as a scrum in front of the Amherst goal led to two shots on target that forced Horwitz to get a pad on the ball and Fiore to make a defensive save in order for the Purple & White to claim the 4-3 victory.