Amherst, Mass. – The Trinity College Bantam women's soccer team defeated the Amherst College Lord Jeffs , 2-1, in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) regular-season finale for both teams this afternoon on a cold and windy Hitchcock Field. Trinity, which closes the regular campaign at 7-3-4 overall and 4-3-2 in the NESCAC, will host a quarterfinal game for the first time in the history of the program, thanks to the won coupled with a loss by Middlebury College in its game against Williams College this afternoon. The Bantams grabbed the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5-seeded Middlebury on Sunday, October 31 at 12:30 p.m. Trinity also snaps an eight-game winless streak (0-5-3) against the Jeffs. The Lord Jeffs drop to 6-6-2 overall and 5-2-2 in the league and earn the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament. They will host the No. 7-seeded Bowdoin College on Sunday in the quarterfinal round.
Trinity sophomore defender Heather Lyhne (Wethersfield, Conn.) scored in the 38th minute and senior back Caroline Washburne (Medfield, Mass.) made it a 2-0 game in the 41st. Amherst cut its deficit in half just before halftime when Sarah Duffy '14 (Fairfield, Conn.) netted her first collegiate goal, but neither team would score the rest of the way. The game's first goal came with only 7:56 remaining in the first half. After junior forward Jenny Ley (Warwick, R.I.) delivered a cross that the Amherst defense could not clear, Lyhne ran on to the loose ball and poked it past Lord Jeff senior goalkeeper (Woodbridge, Conn.) to make it a 1-0 game. Just three and a half minutes later, Trinity freshman forward Shea Kusiak (Longmeadow, Mass.) played a ball to the corner for Washburne, who ripped a shot to the near post. Horwitz made a nice effort to get her hands on the shot but could not hang on, as the ball hit the ground and trickled over the goal line to give the visitors a 2-0 lead with 4:21 on the clock.
Duffy brought some life back to the Lord Jeffs when she recorded her first collegiate points with only 2:06 remaining before halftime. An Amherst cross from the right wing was punched away by Trinity senior goalkeeper Emily Weedon (Wellesley, Mass.), but the ball made its way to the middle of the box. Duffy was there to clean up and placed a perfect shot to the keeper's right, putting the Jeffs on the scoreboard and providing some much needed momentum.
Amherst carried that momentum into the second frame and nearly scored in the first two minutes. Amherst freshman Amanda Brisco (Houston, Texas) beat a defender in the box and managed to get free for a close-range shot, but junior goalkeeper Lily Pepper (Princeton Junction, N.J.), who had replaced Weedon at the start of the second half, was there to make a point-blank save. Trinity nearly made it a 3-1 game with 11 minutes remaining in regulation when Ley ripped a shot from just outside the box, but Horwitz made a spectacular diving stop to keep the Jeffs within range. The last push from Amherst came with only 18 seconds showing on the clock, as sophomore Emily Little (Sherborn, Mass.) attempted a bicycle kick in the box but was denied by Pepper.
Horwitz finished with five saves for the Jeffs, while Weedon made one stop and Pepper saved three shots. Weedon earned the win to improve to 4-2-3. In the second half, Amherst held a 9-3 advantage in shots (13-11 overall) and a 5-0 edge in corner kicks (8-1 overall), but the Jeffs could not find a solution for Pepper, who entered the game leading the NESCAC in goals-against average and save percentage.
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