AMHERST, MA – Five goals from Bridget Finley and an OT-game winner by Emily Petersen lifted the No. 13 Amherst women's lacrosse team to an upset in their 2026 home opener on Saturday, March 7. Coming off a season opening win against Hamilton last week, the Mammoths faced No. 2 Tufts in a battle of top ranked teams. Down five at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Amherst put together a 7-1 scoring run the rest of the way to clinch a 14-13 victory.
 
With the win, Amherst improves to 2-0 on the year while the Jumbos fall to 2-1. The Mammoths will return to Pratt Field for their first non-conference game of the season against local foe Smith on Tuesday, March 10. The game against the Bears is scheduled for 6 p.m.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
 
* Amherst got the first goal of the game just 25 seconds into the contest. After a Petersen draw control, the Mammoths quickly moved the ball up the field, finding Kate Becker in her position at X. Becker rolled the crease, jumped over her defender, and bounced shot past the Tufts goalie to make it 1-0.

* Tufts scored next to tie the game, but Amherst responded in kind just 30 seconds later, with a Sofia Guttmann goal giving them the lead back. After two big stops defensively, Amherst worked the ball around the perimeter to Finley. Finley spun around her defender, sending her to the turf in the process, and scored high stick-side to extend the margin to 3-1. Finley got her second on the next offensive possession netting on a free position for the 4-1 lead with 5 minutes to go in the first quarter.

* Tufts stormed back after the fourth goal, scoring four goals bridging two quarters to take the lead for the first time at 5-4 with 8:43 left to go in the first half. Amherst broke their scoreless streak two minutes later, with Mia Raven diving in on goal, beating her defender on a cut, and scoring while falling to the tuft to tie the game at 5-5.

* Tufts again went on a scoring run to end the half, scoring three goals in the final five minutes to take an 8-5 advantage into the second half.

* The second half was much more back and forth, with the Mammoths opening the scoring 4 minutes into the quarter. Finley quick-sticked a pass from Bridget Darcy past the Tufts goaltender to narrow the deficit to 2. The Jumbos got on the board to restore their 3-goal lead before Emily Petersen responded with her first of the game, rifling a Becker pass into the cage to cut the lead to two once again. Tufts netted three more to make it 12-7 at the end of three quarters.

* For the third time in four quarters, it was Amherst that netted first. This time it was Guttmann, putting in a mammoth solo effort and scoring on a bounce shot. This jump-started a scoring run, with the senior doing it again just a minute later, sprinting to goal from the left side, running through a check attempt and tallying her third of the game. Finley was the next to convert, bringing the deficit back to just 2 with a woman-up free position goal.

* The Jumbos paused the Amherst run with their first of the final quarter, but Darcy scored a quick-stick from Becker soon after to bring the margin to just two for the first time since the second quarter, and Petersen brought it even closer with her second unassisted tally.

* Their comeback effort saw the Mammoths down just 13-12 heading into crunch time. With 31.9 seconds to go, and lengthy delay saw Amherst gain possession. When play restarted, they cycled and hit Finley in the middle of the 8-meter. Finley spun to her left, stepped back to her right and hit the top-corner with 4.0 seconds to go to tie the game at 13-apiece sent it to overtime.

* That momentum carried over into the sudden-death extra period. On the opening draw, a green card put Amherst on the woman-up. They worked the ball inside, with Kate Becker hitting a cutting Petersen in stride. Team captain Petersen became captain clutch, scoring to give her team a 14-13 win.

BY THE NUMBERS:
* The win against the Jumbos is the first since a 9-8 OT victory during the 2022 season.
 
* Tufts outshot the Mammoths 19-17 in shots on goal, but Amherst took more shots overall (30-27).
 
* Finley led the team with 5 goals on the day, while Becker put up 3 assists.

* Lily Samoska made 9 saves on the day, including 3 during the team's fourth quarter comeback.