Williamstown, MA - Aiming to continue their undefeated start to their season, Williams College faced arch rival Amherst College (3-6) in front of an electric Chandler Gymnasium crowd and defeated the Mammoths in straight sets. The Ephs improved to 8-0 overall and /3-0 in NESCAC.
The third set was back and forth early on, but when the Ephs won three points in a row to push their advantage to 10-6, Amherst responded with a timeout to gather themselves. Although Williams won the next few points coming out of the stoppage, the strategy seemed to eventually pay off as the Mammoths won five out of six points to narrow the gap to 14-12. With the Ephs winning the next three points to push their lead back to five points, the match seemed well within their grasp, but Amherst responded with a four point run to once again reel the Ephs back in. A solo block from senior
Marit Hoyem bought Williams one more point of breathing room, and the Ephs took advantage to reel off a 7-2 match-clinching run, securing the third set 25-18 with a service ace from
Marit Hoyem.
The Ephs came out on fire to start the match, winning the first five points to kick off the first set and forcing an early Mammoth timeout. The onslaught from Williams would not let up, and first year
Keely Campuzano's fifth kill of the early going made the score 17-8. With the set quickly getting out of hand, Amherst called another timeout, but the Ephs could not be slowed down, as a powerful kill from
Marit Hoyem set up a 22-12 advantage. However, the Mammoths proceeded to win six points in a row to trim the deficit to four, pressuring the Ephs into calling their first timeout of the match at 22-18. A double block from senior
Lauren Kauppila and sophomore
Helen Qian finally ended the Amherst run, and Williams capitalized to win the first set 25-19 thanks to a strong kill from
Celia Adams.
Williams once again started off the second set on top of their game, with a tremendous run of three kills in four points from sophomore
Sydney Eyestone keying the Ephs to an early 7-3 advantage. Junior
Sidra Wohlwend contributed two quick service aces to expand the lead to seven points, but the Mammoths then won the next four points – with two service aces of their own – to pull back within three. Although the Ephs were able to hold off Amherst for a while longer, Amherst finally pulled ahead at 17-16 with back-to-back double blocks from the junior duo of Anaya Thomas and Kinsey Cronin. The rest of the set went back and forth between the two teams, and the Mammoths seemed on the cusp of tying the match at a set apiece with a 23-22 advantage late, but the Ephs rallied to win the next three points, and clinched the set 25-23 with a double block courtesy of
Marit Hoyem and senior
Celia Adams.
Amherst leaders were: sophomore Charlotte Rasmussen with 8 kills, senior Carly Cooper with 15 assists, and junior Lizzie Papalia with 10 digs. Williams leaders were:
Marit Hoyem with 12 kills,
Lauren Kauppila with 34 assists, and
Sidra Wohlwend with 4 digs.
Commenting on the team's resilience in powering through to their eight straight win, senior captain
Marit Hoyem said, "Our mental toughness is one of our strengths that we've been working on the past couple of years, and so that really helps us be resilient and respond to adversity and a couple of setbacks during the match, and I'm really proud of that and it's definitely a strength of our team."Â
Williams will be back in action in New Paltz, NY at 12:45 PM EST on Saturday, September 23rd when they travel to take on No. 25 Ithaca College, followed by SUNY New Paltz.
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