Women’s soccer made history last weekend in defeating third-seeded Middlebury 1–0 in the NESCAC quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals for the first time since joining the conference in 2011. With the win, Hamilton extended its stretch of consecutive shutout wins to five and upped its season-total to 11 shutouts. Emily Dumont ’18 also made history by registering her ninth shutout on the season in net, tying the program record for shutouts in a season.
Maddie Dale ’20 scored the lone goal of the game, her first of the season and the second of her career, just two and a half minutes into play. The Continentals held on, thanks to seven saves by Dumont and strong defensive play, to advance to the NESCAC final four. Hamilton squares off with fourth-seeded Tufts on Sat. Nov. 4 at Williams College, and the winner advances to play the winner of top-seeded Williams and seventh-seeded Amherst on Sun. Nov. 5 for the NESCAC title. Hamilton lost 2–0 to the Jumbos on Love Field back on Oct. 8. Since then, the Continentals are 5–0, outscoring opponents 6–0 over that stretch. In fact, since Tufts scored at 44:52 of the first half against Hamilton, the Continentals have gone on a 10-half shutout streak; they have blanked their opponents for an astonishing 495 minutes since that goal and hope to continue that streak.
The Continentals enter the game with momentum and hope to continue their strong play through the weekend and into the NCAA playoffs. The winner of the NESCAC tournament secures an automatic bid to NCAAs, but Hamilton may qualify for the tournament regardless. The Continentals are currently seventh in the strong New England region, and their victory over Middlebury puts them in position to likely receive a bid to the 64-team NCAA tournament regardless of the result this weekend. Beating Tufts would help solidify Hamilton’s spot in the tournament.
To defeat the Jumbos, the Continentals must continue their strong defensive play. The back-end is clearly the strength of this team. Hamilton was tied for ninth in offensive output but boasted the fourth-best defense in the 11-team NESCAC in regular season conference play. Factoring in all games, both conference and non-conference, the disparity grows larger, the Continentals’ offense was the conference’s tenth-best in the regular season while their defense was the second-best. In fact, the Continentals have not won a game this season in which they have yielded a goal; every Hamilton women’s soccer victory in 2017 has been a shutout. The buff and blue have scored one goal or less in every conference game aside from a 2–0 victory over Colby. Thankfully, they have yielded more than one goal just twice.
Several players have played key roles in Hamilton’s defensive success. Dumont has been stellar all season, starting 15 of 16 games and playing all but three halves of play. In that time, Dumont has saved all but eight shots on goal, making 69 saves, good for second in the conference, on her way to a conference-best .896 save percentage and a second-best 0.53 goals against average. Cassie Hayward ’19 (15 starts in 16 games), Katie Mckillop ’19 (16 starts) and Kristin Hughes ’20 (16 starts) have played phenomenally for the Continentals on defense and are a key, if not
the
key, reason for Hamilton’s success. Along with their superb defensive play, these three have contributed to the offensive output as well; Hughes has three assists, Hayward has one and Mckillop has both a goal and an assist to her name.
In addition to sustaining strong defensive play, Hamilton must step up its attack in order to win the NESCAC title. Hamilton does not have one critical scoring threat, especially after the loss of Amanda Becker ’18 to in- jury, but relies upon contributors from all over the roster. Cat Gambino ’21 leads the team with three goals, while Katja Dunlap ’18, Katie Krieder ’18, and Katie Tenefrancia ’19 have each scored twice and Dale, Becker, Mckillop, Darby Philbrick ’18 and Sydney Kim ’21 have each contributed one goal. The beauty of the Hamilton offense is that, on any given day, anyone can find the back of the net. Unfortunately, the lack of one or two critical scoring threats means that oftentimes no one hits pay dirt, or the Continentals score just once. If the defense continues its lights-out play, one goal may be enough to win; however, one slip up and Hamilton will have to call on its offense to do what it has done just three times in 16 games this season, and only once against a conference opponent, score a second goal.
Hayward remarks that the Middlebury victory resulted from an, “All around tremendous effort by the team.” To take home the NESCAC crown, and secure the automatic NCAA bid, Hamilton will need two more “tremendous effort” performances this weekend. Many teams would be nervous but Hamilton is enthusiastic. “We’re super excited to have made it to semis and are excited to see what the next few weeks bring,” Hayward exclaimed. The Continentals are in uncharted territory but are approaching the game like they have been here before. They are hungry to keep making history, and, with every win, they do just that.
