Around the Herd: Dec. 5 to Dec. 12 in Athletics

Women’s Hockey

The Mammoths ran wild on Friday night, with the Amherst women’s ice hockey team taking down Manhattanville College 5-0 on Dec. 8 in their annual Pink in the Rink Game to support Cancer Connection in Northampton. Amherst opened the scoring in the last minute of the first period, when Alejandra Ubarri ’26 took a shot from the point that Jayna Park ’24 deflected at the goalmouth for the game’s first goal. While held goalless in the second period, the Mammoths were a constant threat, outshooting the Valiants 44-4 in the frame and having all of the games best chances. However, they could not be denied forever, scoring four times in the third and hitting paydirt just 1:44 into the period. Ubarri again played creator, passing the puck back to Maeve Reynolds ’26, whose initial shot was blocked before she netted her own rebound to double the lead. Just five minutes later, Gretchen Dann ’26 picked out Natalie Fu ’27 in front of the Valiants’ goal, and Fu tapped the puck home to record her first collegiate goal. Classmate Cara Mancini ’27 made it 4-0 with seven minutes to go, going top-shelf off a pass from behind the net, and Emily Hohmann ’26 closed the scoring with a backhanding her first of the season past the Manhattanville goalie with three minutes to go. The Mammoths will return to the ice against Oswego State University on New Years Eve, with puck drop scheduled for 1 p.m.

Men’s Hockey

The Amherst men’s hockey team went undefeated during their pre-break road trip, taking down bitter rival Williams 4-3 on Friday, Dec. 8 before downing Middlebury 3-2 the next day. Against the Ephs, Josh Burke ’26 continued his goal-scoring form, netting the first goal of the game with just under three minutes to go in the first off assists from Ben Ritter ’26 and Vincent Velocci ’27. The Mammoths made it 2-0 just six minutes later, with Burke playing creator. Burke took the puck off an Eph attacker and floated it to Matt Toporowski ’25, who took advantage of the open ice in front of him to score on a breakaway 4:14 into the second. While Williams scored twice to tie the game going into the third, Ryan Tucker ’24 broke that tie just 1:26 into the final period with a solo effort in which he beat an Eph defensemen before firing a shot that went into the net off a defender’s skate. Alex Wisco ’24 stood tall in net with 17 third-period saves, making 37 total on the night, which provided enough time to get a goal in the form of a Burke empty-netter with 1:05 to go. Although the Ephs would score with 25 seconds to go and an extra skater on the ice to narrow the lead, the Mammoths held on to win 4-3.

And, despite going down 2-0 early in the game to the Panthers, the Mammoths again found a way. Just 13 seconds after Middlebury doubled their lead, Max Thiessen ’25 fired a shot that rebounded straight to the stick of Connor Guest ’24, who netted to cut the deficit to one. Just about five minutes later, Quinton Fox ’24 got his first goal of the day. After Burke passed him the puck, Fox fired an initial shot that was saved before potting his own rebound the tie the game. Fox found the net again just 90 seconds into the third period, playing the hero by scoring the game-winner with a stellar solo effort. Fox intercepted a Middlebury clearance attempt, skated to the right side of the zone, and then backhanded a laser to the top left corner for the Mammoths third goal. Goaltender Connor Leslie ’25 made two big saves in the final minutes of the game to seal the win, and kept the Panthers off the board with a late power play that turned into a six-on-four advantage late in the game with the extra skater. Now standing at 5-3, the Mammoths will look to extend their win streak on the road against Endicott College on New Years Eve, with puck drop scheduled for 2 p.m.

Women’s Basketball

A career-high 10 points from Brielle Renwick ’27 and eight from Abbey Skinner ’24 helped the Amherst College women’s basketball team cruise past non-conference opponent SUNY Polytechnic Institute, 61-16, on Friday Dec. 8. The Mammoths opened the game on the front foot, taking a 22-3 lead by the end of the first quarter and never looked back. Their sixteen points allowed was by far a season-low, a feat they accomplished on the back of holding SUNY Poly to just 16.7 percent shooting, and recording 12 steals and while causing 26 total turnovers.

And, the win was a total-team performance: every player in uniform for the Mammoths scored against the Wildcats, with six scoring six or more points: Renwick, Skinner, Annie McCarthy ’26 (seven points), Reeya Patel ’24, Nicole Stanford ’24, and Maya Cwalina ’25 (six points each). Brooke Ingemi ’26 led the team in assists with three. And, while the Mammoths dominated the contest in every respect, but nowhere was that clearer than on the boards: the Mammoths won the rebound battle 46-21, and brought down 15 offensive boards. With the win, Amherst improved to 7-0 on the season. They will return to the court in three weeks at the Florida Sunshine Shootout, held in Daytona Beach, Florida. They will open the tournament against Husson University on Friday, Dec. 29, with tip-off scheduled for 12 p.m.

Men’s Basketball

The Amherst men’s basketball team went 2-0 in their final games before the break, with a 72-67 comeback win on the road against York College on Thursday, Dec. 7 before a 101-96 overtime win on Saturday, Dec. 9 against Westfield State. Against the Cardinals, the Mammoths started flat, quickly surrendering a 7-0 run and going down by as many as 19 in the first half. The Mammoths headed into the locker room with much to talk about, down 18 points, 45-27. However, the second half was a much different story, with the Mammoths going on a 10-0 run of their own to get within 10 points, with C.J. Mitchell ’25 and Mohammed Alusa ’24 hitting key three pointers to get the Mammoths going. On the back of relentless defense, Amherst tied the game with 7:14 to go on a Chris Hammond ’26 three, and Will Scherer ’25 gave the Mammoths the lead shortly after with a putback layup. After a back-and-forth final five minutes, Scherer hit another putback and Mitchell hit a dagger from three before sealing the victory at the freethrow line. Scherer and Mitchell lead the Mammoths with a combined 37 points in the win, and Scherer and Ryker Vance ’25 each tallied double-digit rebounds.

The Mammoths’ continued their pattern of gutting out gritty comeback wins, this time in overtime against a competitive Westfield State squad. Charlie Randall ’26 led the Amherst offense, pouring in a game-high 18 points and completing his double-double with 10 rebounds. In fact, four players scored more than 15 points: Randall, Vance (17 points), Mitchell, and Hammond (15 each). But that offensive efficiency didn’t come until the second frame — after a rocky first half, the Mammoths went into the break down 20 points, at 51-31. However the second half was an entirely different story, with Randall scoring 13 points and Hammond recording 11, including the game-tying three-pointer with 21 seconds to go, during a 53-point half to tie the game at 84-84 heading into overtime. And despite a back and forth overtime period, Amherst hit their shots, and took home the win. The Mammoths will return to the court at the Stevens Holiday Tournament on Friday, Dec. 29, taking on the hosts at 1 p.m.

Squash

Both the men’s and women’s squash teams traveled to Medford, Mass. to face NESCAC rival Tufts on Saturday Dec. 9. However, neither squad could overcome the might of the Jumbos, with both teams falling 7-2. On the men’s side, both Adam Lichtmacher ’24 and Joseph Toth ’26 pulled out 3-2 victories in the fifth. Lichtmacher took his match at the top spot after going down 2-0, pulling out a 4-11, 3-11, 11-5, 12-10, 11-7 win, and Toth did the same at the third spot, 7-11, 4-11, 11-9, 11-3, 12-14. The women’s squad had similar storylines: after surrendering a 2-0 lead, Callie DeLalio ’24 didn’t fall victim to the same trap as Lichtmacher and Toth’s opponents, winning her match 3-2 in the fifth, 11-9, 11-8, 6-11, 10-12, 11-13, and Yana Sharma ’27 won her match in the fifth as well, taking the decisive final set 11-6 to claim the victory. The teams will return to the court looking to return to the win column in the New Year on Friday, Jan. 5 at 4:30 p.m. at home against Dickinson College.