Courtesy of Brian Beard

This past weekend, the women’s soccer team (3–1–0; 1–1–0 NESCAC) earned their first conference win of the season against Amherst. The Polar Bears won 3–2 against the Mammoths (2–2–0; 0–2–0 NESCAC), marking their first win over them since 2014 and the first away win at Amherst since 2005.

Kayley Huleatt ’28 had one assist and noted that the team had many attacking threats on offense while shutting down the Mammoths defensively.

“Going into our second NESCAC game of the season, we were definitely looking for a win, also to make a statement to other teams that we will be playing in the future,” Huleatt said. “Amherst has been a really tough opponent every year, so it felt awesome to get this win.”

The Polar Bears had a plan going into the game, aiming to win, and Huleatt remarked that it was great to see first-years stepping up and contributing in a major way.

First-years Eliza Knight Bairstow ’30 and Anna Lenschow ’30 scored two goals in the second half of the game that secured the win over Amherst. Lenschow was optimistic going into the game because Amherst lost the previous weekend to Connecticut College (2–1–0; 1–1–0 NESCAC). During the bus ride over, the team was excited to get out and play with a strong chance of beating them as well.

“It was a little scary going in at first because it’s obviously my first year,” Lenschow said. “Progressively, throughout the game, it got a lot better where, as a team, we grew more confident, and we were playing the best we’ve played this season.”

The improvement from game to game is in part due to the strong first-year class, who are still only getting their footing.

“I was super nervous to start playing with the team, because you don’t really know [what to expect] over the summer; you’ve never played in a college game before,” Lenschow said.

After the first few practices, Lenschow felt more poised and attributes it to her team. Co-captain Mary Rainey ’27 strives to make the team environment inviting and cultivate a strong bond that shows up in games.

“The first-years have been killing it,” Rainey said. “It’s been so fun to watch them come in and just make an immediate impact. We have so many people who are such strong performers, and it’s just been so awesome. They’ve been absolute rock stars, and it’s also really cool to see even the growth in the first few weeks as they’re adjusting to college; they’ve done such an amazing job at being integrated into the team and just making an immediate impact.”

After one great game against a NESCAC team, the Polar Bears are ready and eager for more.

“Everyone on the field worked incredibly hard, and this definitely puts us in a good position going into a big double-header against Wesleyan and Williams this weekend,” Huleatt said.

The team beat the University of New England (3–3–1) in a mid-week away match 2–1 and looks ahead to play both Wesleyan University (4–1–0; 1–1–0 NESCAC) tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. and Williams (3–0–0; 3–0–0 NESCAC) on Sunday at 2 p.m. at home.