The Amherst women's ice hockey team entered last season hoping to answer the one question: Could it compete with the elite teams in the NESCAC?
The answer turned out to be a resounding "yes." The Lord Jeffs, who came into last year without ever having won a postseason game, stunned national heavyweights Bowdoin and Middlebury en route to the 2006-07 conference championship, beginning a Cinderella ride that culminated in a trip to the NCAA Div. III Final Four.
And now, with a new season about to get underway, coach Jim Plumer's squad faces a new question: What will it do for an encore?
With high expectations and arguably the most talented roster in the NESCAC, Amherst will begin the defense of its title this Friday when the puck drops on the 2007-08 women's hockey season. While the team is still reveling in its remarkable 2007 postseason ride, it is determined to avoid a hangover.
"We've got a nice banner hanging - first time we've ever had a women's hockey banner here - and I think the kids are really proud of it," Plumer said. "But one of the things we said at the very first practice was, 'That was then.' That's an accomplishment that no one's ever going to take away from us. But we need to write a new story here."
With Bowdoin and Middlebury each having graduated over 40 percent of last season's offensive production, the Lord Jeffs boast the strongest corps of returning players. Three All-NESCAC first-teamers - junior forward Tarasai Karega, sophomore defenseman Kirsten Dier and sophomore goaltender Krystyn Elek - are all back from last year's title-winning squad.
While Amherst won't have trouble filling up the stat sheet, it will have to find a way to duplicate the chemistry and cohesiveness that proved so vital to last season's success. The team graduated six seniors, many of whom willingly accepted lesser roles to make way for the squad's young talent.
"Those seniors left behind the legacy [of] what it meant to be part of a team," Plumer said. "It didn't go unnoticed what [they] did, so the rest of the team is trying to carry on that legacy of being selfless."
Amherst will also have to deal with the expectations once reserved exclusively for the likes of Middlebury and Bowdoin, two powerhouse programs that faced off in four straight NESCAC title games from 2003 to 2006. Now that the Jeffs have joined the ranks of the Panthers and Polar Bears as conference elites, they have shed the underdog role in which they thrived last year and put the targets squarely on their backs.
"Probably the biggest issue of the offseason has been trying to manage the expectations," Plumer said. "I think you have to take a little page out of the Bill Belichick playbook here and focus on just what's in front of you. We're trying to just focus on the games we're playing in a given week and not worry about whether we're going to be able to replicate our playoff run."
The Jeffs will have to contend with a conference that is as deep as it has ever been.
"I think the fact that there were two NESCAC teams in the Frozen Four last year speaks volumes about the strength of the conference," Wesleyan coach Jodi McKenna said. "Each year there seems to be a new team that's rising to the top. I think it's possible that there are new teams that will break in and make the league even stronger this year."
Colby could be one of those teams. The Mules did not graduate anyone from a squad that went unbeaten against Bowdoin and Williams last season and that also tied Amherst. Hamilton, meanwhile, returns six of its top seven scorers after a season in which it reached the NESCAC semifinals for the third time in four years.
Amherst will test its new status right out of the gate when it travels to Bowdoin this Friday. By Dec. 2, the Jeffs will have also had games against Middlebury and archrival Williams under their belts. Getting off to a good start against a tough early-season schedule would help Amherst prove that last year was no fluke. But as the Jeffs showed last year, when they opened the year with four losses in their first seven games, a mediocre start won't necessarily hurt their chances at a postseason run.
"We know we don't need to go undefeated to get [to the Final Four]; we learned that last year," Plumer said. "I think peaking at the end of the season is key. Yes, we want to get off to a good start, but we don't want to panic if we don't, either."
