AMHERST, Mass. -- Alyssa Xu scored twice while Natalie Stott made 26 saves Saturday night as the Amherst College women's hockey team blanked Hamilton, 5-0, in the 2023 NESCAC Tournament championship game on the Mammoths home ice of Orr Rink.

It's the second NESCAC title in three years for the Mammoths and the fifth overall in program history (2007, 2008, 2010, 2020, 2023),  The Mammoths became the first team in NESCAC history to not allow a goal in a single tournament run. The Mammoths outscored their opponents 9-0 over three games. 

The victory improved Amherst's record to 24-3-0, tying the single-season win mark at the school set in the 2008-09 season. The Mammoths receive the conference's automatic berth into the 2023 Div. III NCAA Tournament and will receive word of their next opponent during the NCAA Div. III Women's Ice Hockey Selection Show scheduled for 8:30 p.m. tomorrow. It will be the Mammoths 8th NCAA Tournament appearance. 

GAME HIGHLIGHTS: 

* The two teams came in having split their two meetings in the regular season way back in November, with each team posting a shutout win against the other. Saturday, Amherst scored first when senior defenseman Avery Flynn received a pass from Rylee Glennon just inside the Continentals' blue line and one-time a shot into the top right-hand corner of the goal with 6:20 left in the first period. 

* Only 3:27 into the second stanza, the Mammoths made it a 2-0 lead. Flynn collected the puck from behind her and fired a pass off the left boards from behind the goal line that Xu skated onto as she skated into the Hamilton zone. Striding into the left-face-off circle, Xu let rip with a wrister from the dot that caromed off Hamilton goaltender Evie Sheridan and into the goal. 

* Just past the mid-way point of the period, Mammoth Anna Baxter was called for an elbow penalty. But Amherst, third in the nation (Div. III) with eight short-handed goals, would net a backbreaker a skater down when Flynn broke up a rush by Maddie Hong and poked a pass up to Kate Pohl. Pohl blazed into the Hamlton zone and fired off a shot that Sheridan put a blocker on. Maeve Reynolds won the puck back in the left corner and skated behnd the goal, stopped, changed direction back to her left and found a wide open Carley Daly in the slot. Daly did not miss, firing a quick shot into the top right-hand dorner of the goal for a short-handed marker that made it 3-0 Amherst.

* Amherst carried that three-goal lead into the final period, but it was Hamilton that came out on fire, creating 16 shots in the frame. The Mammoths defense of Emily Hohmann, Leslie Schwartz, Flynn, Gretchen Dann, Alejandra Ubarri and Kelsey Stewart did a great job of blocking shots, collecting rebounds, and getting the puck out of their own zone. Stott did the rest, stopping Mya Beretta with under five minutes to go when she skated in alone on the right side. 

* With 3:43 remaining, the Continentals pulled Sheridan, but even with the extra skater, could not generate any shots on goal. With 1:59 remaining, Xu was in the right place at the right time when the puck came out of a scrum along the boards. Xu picked it up and skated just over the Continentals' blue line, firing a shot from the right boards that found the empty goal. 

* With just over a minute to go, Nancy Loh had a great opportunity to get Hamilton on the board from the mid-slot, but Stott stopped that bid with her left pad. 

* With 12.6 seconds left, Marie-Eve Marleau closed the scoring off an assist from Jayna Park to account for the final score. 



BY THE NUMBERS:

* The shutout was the third in a row for Stott and 12th on the season, which currently leads the country at the Div. III level. 

* Hamilton finished with a 26-20 advantage in shots. 

* Amherst won 37 of 55 face-offs in the contest. Anna Baxter won 9 of 12 face-offs drawn, while Reynolds won 13 of 21.