AMHERST — The Amherst College women’s soccer team has one motto this season: Earn it.
On Sunday, Amherst convincingly earned a place in the third round of the NCAA Division III Tournament with a 4-2 victory over Swarthmore.
As she did during the first round on Saturday, Rubii Tamen gave Amherst the early lead Sunday, sliding the ball past Swarthmore goalkeeper Amy Shmoys.
“I got the ball and I was close enough to the goal so I was like I’m not going to waste this. I had to battle for it, not going to lie. It wasn’t easy,” Tamen said. “Once we score early we can really be confident in ourselves and go for it.”
Tamen’s teammates took the boost in confidence and turned it into a four-goal lead by the 30th minute in the first half.
Amherst’s persistence at winning battles led to a corner kick in the 19th minute. Junior Delancey King soared the ball into the 18-yard box, where senior Ashlyn Heller used her head to put it in the back of the net to give Amherst the 2-0 lead.
Minutes later on another corner kick, King’s serve found Amherst’s leading goal scorer Hannah Guzzi for a third Amherst goal. Guzzi scored again two minutes later on a penalty kick giving her 18 goals on the season and Amherst the 4-0 lead.
“We needed to come out and attack even though they had some really strong attacking players themselves. I think in some ways our best defense is our offense,” Amherst coach Jen Hughes said. “It was important that we didn’t play conservatively and react to what they were doing and instead we played our game and tried to put as much offensive pressure on them as possible to see how they would react.”
Swarthmore fought to get one goal back by the end of the first half as Claire O’Brien scored on a long rocket past Amherst’s goalkeeper Chelsea Cutler.
Swarthmore’s Sarah Hancock scored on penalty kick to make the score 4-2 in the second half.
No. 13-ranked Amherst extended its winning streak to 14 games and will play the No. 1 William Smith (20-0-0) on Saturday. A time and place has yet to be determined.
On Sunday, William Smith beat Trinity (Connecticut) 3-0 to advance to the third round.
“We are just going to keep doing what we are doing,” Hughes said. “This is us.”