The Amherst girls lacrosse team had the most successful season of head coach Andrew MacDougall’s tenure in 2024. The Hurricanes went 19-3 and won their first ever Western Mass. tournament Class B title in an overtime victory against Belchertown.

Amherst lost cornerstones Talia Sadiq, Abigail Como and Francesca Sloan — among others — to graduation following its historic campaign, leaving MacDougall in a bit of an unfamiliar spot as his fourth season at the helm gets underway this spring.

“I would describe this as more of a rebuilding, reloading-type of year,” MacDougall said. “We graduated almost half of the team last year, so we’ve got a new group of girls, half who have been on varsity and half who are coming up from JV. A lot of people will be getting used to the faster pace of the game.”

Cedar Conrad was a four-year starter in goal for the ‘Canes, but the keeper also graduated, opening a spot for junior Eden Pollock.

“Eden, she is a field-hockey goalie as well so she played in net in multiple sports, so [I’m] very excited about that,” MacDougall said. “She’s fully committed to it and the team is completely behind her as well.”

Tsukiko ‘Kiko’ Bhowmik has already picked up where she left off as a sophomore last year as the Hurricanes’ attacker is closing in on 100 career goals. Bhowmik has already reached double figures in goals (11) in just three games played this season as Amherst is 1-2 to open 2025.

“Kiko is probably the most polished and most accomplished of the players that we have,” MacDougall said. “She leads the team in scoring already… she actually looks to assist first. This is something I’ve been working with her on, scoring is not selfish.”

Amherst seniors Zoe Candito and Emilia Luetjen will be important fixtures this season both offensively and defensively as captains of the team, along with Bhowmik.

“She brings a lot to the middie position,” MacDougall said of Luetjen. “She’s able to cover ground really fast and she’s coming into her own offensively.

“Zoe has kind of platooned a little bit over her career,” MacDougall said. “She’s played defense, she’s played middie and she’s played goalie for us as backup, as well. Very well-rounded and because she’s been more defense-focused, I have her playing middie this year and she is really working hard on developing her offensive skills.”

MacDougall mentioned senior Marianna Mendoza-Torres and sophomore Keira Cunniffe as other players to watch.

As far as competition in the Pioneer League, MacDougall pointed to Hoosac Valley and Lee as teams he expects to be at the top of the standings.

“We’re going to be a mid-pack team for the foreseeable future unless we can really make some great progress on some of these offensive and defensive schemes,” MacDougall said. “We’ve got a great group of girls out here though. There’s an excellent sense of unity among them.”

The Amherst boys team is a perfect 3-0 to start the 2025 season and is striving to qualify for the MIAA tournament for the first time since 2018.

Goalkeeping appears to be the Hurricanes’ strength as junior Jason Kim has allowed an average of 5.3 goals in the first three games.

Amherst’s offense will be led by Tri Nguyen and Sawyer Ferro as attackmen, Tre Bowman, Gavin Duncan and Brian Cruz as midfielders, while Devine Moyston will anchor the backfield for the Hurricanes.

Head coach Rich Ferro is in his second year and is already halfway toward his total win output (6-12) from 2024.

Tigers on the prowl

Jeff Marion took a new approach this season as far as his expectations as head coach for the South Hadley boys team.

“This is the first season I came in with like zero expectations,” Marion said. “Third season I’m coaching at this level and the first year I had all these expectations and it didn’t happen. Second season, I had a little less, but it didn’t happen again. I thought we had more experience, same team, so I’d thought we’d do better, but it didn’t happen again. This year I didn’t have any expectations and we’re actually doing better than I expected so I’m pretty happy with that.”

The Tigers are 1-3 but didn’t return a lot of varsity experience as 11 seniors graduated from last spring’s roster that went 6-14. Senior Julius Hebenth and sophomore Rush Camacho figure to be South Hadley’s stalwarts on offense.

“Julius has been playing great for us all year,” Marion said. “He’s our long-stick midfielder and he’s all over the field, pressure on everybody, he helps us advance the ball because his stick skills are so good, so we leave him on the offensive end a little bit longer sometimes.”

Camacho scored six goals in the Tigers’ 12-2 win against Wahconah on April 4.

South Hadley is also running with a freshman goalie in Brayden Blais, and Marion has been pleased with what he’s seen from his first-year netminder.

“Our goalie’s been stepping up, the freshman, he’s been doing really well, so pretty happy with these guys,” Marion said. 

The Tigers who came back have a sliver of playoff experience after losing to Cohasset during the Round of 32 last season. However, Marion is just looking to see continued improvement from his group rather than worry about postseason aspirations at this point.

“I’m happy with the way they’re playing,” Marion said. “It’s coming along, we’re getting experience as the games come.”

The girls squad will rely on its huge freshman class — 11 players — to get over the .500-winning percentage hump. South Hadley went 8-12 last season, but won four of its last five games to close out the season, including the Western Mass. Class C title.

Seniors Margaret Watkins and Raquel Losty will need to bring the goals for the Tigers, while sophomore goalie Riley Nestor will look to hold down the fort on defense.

Freshman Kelcey Zraunig is another player to keep an eye on.

Head coach Danielle Clark begins her third season in charge at South Hadley.

Area lookaround

NORTHAMPTON: The girls squad is poised to make a deep run in the playoffs this spring as it returns nearly all of its impact players from a season ago. Imanni Power-Greene comes back as the Blue Devils’ best player as the junior potted 62 goals and 87 points in 2024. Teagan McDonald will supplement Northampton’s offense while Ainsley Dawson (goalie) and Makayla Fydenkevez (draw controls) round out its balanced roster. The Blue Devils lost to Notre Dame (Hingham) in the Round of 32 of the MIAA Div. 2 state tournament and finished 13-8 on the season. Head coach Ousmane Power-Greene takes over for Kyla Power. 

The boys team ended 2024 losing four straight, but will look to get back to its winning ways this season. Northampton won 13 games last season and return key pieces in Keller Mahoney, Henry Fallon and Nick Biddle — all seniors. The Blue Devils are back in the Pioneer League and Charlie Edwards returns as head coach.

GRANBY: Riley Goodhind and Tyler Guist will look to lead the boys team back to a winning record after going 9-10 a year ago. Goodhind scored the most points for the Rams as a junior with 38 and appears primed to close out his high school career in style. Jack O’Brien’s Granby group lost to South Hadley in the Div. 4 preliminary round last spring. The two teams will meet up again on April 18.

On the girls side, Kelly-Lynne Kennedy and Ava-Elizabeth Loughman will likely be crucial contributors for Granby once again. Kalli White has burst onto the scene as a sophomore, notching 10 goals to this point. Gary O’Grady will strive to get the Rams back into the MIAA playoffs after failing to qualify last season with a 6-14 record.

BELCHERTOWN: The girls team is expecting to take a step forward this year after going 10-10 in 2024 and making the Western Mass. tournament finals. McKenzie LePage (captain) and Veronica Dymkowski will look to pick up the pace on the attack for the Orioles while Lily Tellier, Aubrey McCain (captain) and Madelyn Philpott will assume more responsibility on the field as sophomores. Lia Pikul was also a first-team all-league player as a freshman.

“We are a very young team this year, with two-thirds of our team being underclassmen – the majority of which are playing lacrosse for the first time or in their second year,” head coach Jarrod Lemke said. “Have some great upperclassmen leaders and will look to utilize our athleticism to find success.”

On the boys side, Nico St. George’s graduation will be a huge loss for this year’s team as the former Oriole secured 60 goals on a squad that made it to the Round of 32. Charlie Fijal and Vincent Ting will look to increase its production even more this spring after combining for 49 goals a season ago.

HAMPSHIRE: The Raiders’ girls program continues to improve after qualifying for the Div. 4 state tournament and advancing to the Round of 32 last year. Head coach Grace Ahrensdorf is back for her ninth season at the helm and will boast Mary Thibault and Rylie Simmons once again. Replacing former three-year starting goalie Abby Hennessy will be Ahrensdorf’s toughest test. Emma Erickson and Kailee Roncone have split time in the cage so far. Hampshire went 12-7 last season, its best season since the program started in 2017 as a co-op with St. Mary’s and Westfield Tech.

SMITH VOC: Both Vikings teams will look to be competitive across their shortened schedules. The boys won seven games a season ago while the girls lost their season opener to Monson on April 4.