Last season, the women's soccer team went to Amherst on Sept. 14 in what was certainly one of their biggest games of the season. Fresh off an ill-fated loss to the Gordon Scots the week before, the Jumbos headed west to face the then-second ranked team in the nation.
The Jumbos left Amherst with their biggest upset of the season, a 1-0 win on a low liner into the corner of the net by then-sophomore Jen Baldwin. The victory sparked the Jumbos to take nine out of 10 contests over the next month.
The tables have turned this year, as the Jumbos play host to Amherst this upcoming Saturday at 11 at Kraft Field. As of September 8th, the Jumbos are ranked third in New England and 16th in the country, while the Jeffs are nowhere to be found in the top 10 or top 25 rankings.
Amherst, fresh off its loss last weekend to Connecticut College, is licking its chops at a chance to play the Jumbos in Medford and avenge last year's loss.
"Any NESCAC opponent is very, very tough. Especially Amherst, coming off its first NESCAC loss, is going to come out hungry for the win and play hard for 90 minutes," coach Martha Whiting said. "It's going to be a tough game because they certainly do not want to lose two straight conference games."
The Jumbos will look to feed off the momentum from their 7-0 clobbering of the Gordon Scots last Tuesday.
The offense will be led by junior Baldwin, senior Jessica Trombly, classmate Becca Doigan, the team's leading scorer thus far, and speedy sophomore Sarah Callaghan.
With the graduation of senior co-captain and team leader goalie Brooke Diamond, the four attackers along with the rest of the Jumbo lineup will look to put pressure on sophomore keeper Lauren Coape-Arnold by taking lots of shots and trying to get easy goals off deflections and rebounds.
The midfield, patrolled by juniors Sarah Gelb, Becky Greenstein, and Alina Schmidt, and sophomores Lindsay Garmirian and Lydia Claudio, will look to transition the ball from defense to offense and keep the flow of the game as fast as possible.
"We're going to need to play at a quicker pace than we did against Gordon," senior co-captain Abby Herzberg said. "We, though especially the midfielders, are going to have less time and less open space with the ball and we just have to stick to our fundamentals."
Herzberg and fellow senior co-captain Jess Lovitz will lead the defensive charge against the Jeffs. The Jumbos defense has been their strong suit over the past few seasons, allowing a mere .67 goals per game last season. The two seniors will be joined by junior sweeper Catherine Benidict, sophomore outside back Ariel Samulelson, and Schmidt.
Benedict, who didn't practice for a good portion of the preseason due to injury, never thinks twice about sacrificing her body for the ball and is often the first player on the ground scrambling for possession. Samuelson, who played attack on her club team for the better part of high school, is extremely quick and can beat almost every offensive player to the ball.
The Jumbos will be led by junior keeper Meg McCourt, who even last season, has let up just two goals in her last eight games. She only faced one shot in 78 minutes against Gordon.
"The Amherst game is going to be much, much tougher than the Gordon game," McCourt said. "We're going to need more communication, especially within the back four girls and quicker pressure on the ball in the center of the field."
The Jeffs will look for support up front from All-NESCAC Second Team senior tri-captain Sara Elkins and fellow captain and classmate Jenny Rossman, who leads all Jeffs with 21 career assists.
The Jeffs return their top four scorers as well in juniors Ashley Harmeling, Adrienne Showler, Lee-Jay Henry and Tracy Montigny. Harmeling, the Jeffs' top scorer, ranked sixth in the NESCAC in goals per game (0.60) and finished ninth in the NESCAC in points per game (1.27).
"This Saturday is a big game for us," Callaghan said. "We just have to focus one day at a time at practice and work hard to get physically and mentally ready."
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