AMHERST — How sweep it is.
Amherst Regional swept titles in the boys and girls divisions at the 25th annual Amherst Ultimate Invitational.
Eight was great for the girls. The Hurricanes captured their eighth straight title following a 15-4 triumph over Lexington on Sunday.
The long wait is over for the Hurricanes in the boys division. Amherst captured its first title since 2012 — a new experience for a team that had never tasted a championship before claiming a 15-4 victory over Columbia (New Jersey) on Sunday.
Not only were the final scores of both title games the same, both teams vaulted to commanding 5-0 leads and never looked back.
Strategy came into play in both games. The gusting wind was strong and it all but negated the long passing game.
It wasn’t a problem for either Amherst team. The Hurricanes simply worked the short passing game to perfection, relying and speed and quickness to move the disc into scoring position.
“At upwind points, I played a much more heavier throwing team,” girls coach Josh Nugent said. “Going upwind, we just put in all of our throwers, so we had some continuous passes.”
Downwind wasn’t a problem, either.
“I just put in a really good defensive team,” Nugent said. “We played better than we have all season.”
Which wasn’t the case earlier in the day in a 13-8 semifinal victory over Lower Marion (Pennsylvania). That game was 9-7 before the Hurricanes pulled away.
They carried that strong finish into the final.
“The first few points were tight and then you could see every point from then on looked a little bit better,” Nugent said. “It was exciting. This was the most confident we looked and played all season.”
The key was defense.
“That’s been our trademark, that gritty, man-to-man defense,” Nugent said.
Among the standouts were April Weintraub, Jo-Z Coppinger, Elende Connor and Fernanda Brena.
Izzi Tripp knew her team was playing with a target on its backs.
“There’s definitely some pressure because there’s a lot of seniors this year,” Tripp said. “There’s always an expectation of winning, but our team just focuses on playing our own game.”
Coppinger, who will play for the United State National Under-19 team in Poland this summer, could see her team’s confidence grow after the Hurricanes built a 5-0 lead.
“We started off a little slow, but we brought up our game a lot,” Coppinger said.
Livvy Weld knew how important it was to make proper adjustments.
“We really mastered our short game,” Weld said. “We have a lot of good handlers and that helped.”
Weintraub noted that being together for a long time helped the team grow.
“Our team chemistry is great,” Weintraub said. “We are proud of everything we did today. There is that expectations of intensity and winning and we really played up to the level that we can today.”
Northampton finished 1-4 and tied for fifth with the Amherst Junior Varsity A team.
Northampton lost to Lower Merion (15-11), Lexington (13-6), Amherst JVA (15-9) and Amherst (11-5). The Blue Devils beat Pioneer Valley Performing Arts, 14-2.
Claire Babbott-Bryan, Julia Snodgrass and Lili Leiberman-Bachman played well defensively for Hamp.
The boys final was a carbon copy of the girls championship. Amherst came out on fire and dominated from start to finish. Precision passing and tight passing keyed the victory.
“We’ve been working very hard,” coach Joe Costello said. “Part of the expectation for this weekend was knowing that if we concentrate on our game, we can dominate any team.”
Amherst beat Lower Marion, 15-6, in the semifinal. It dominated Needham, 15-1, earlier in the day.
“We really wanted to perform well here,” Costello said.
Jacob Kaplan was determined to help his team win a title during his senior year.
“It’s awesome,” Kaplan said. “Amherst is back and we put in a lot of effort to make this happen.”
Luke Webb said the wind wasn’t a factor.
“We adjusted to the wind by playing zone a lot and making shorter throws,” Webb said.
Oliver Fay also had a strong game.
“This is really cool because there are a bunch of us seniors who came up together with this program,” Fay said.
One of the highlights was when Fay hit a streaking Webb for a scoring play.
“As we got point after point, our confidence grew,” Fay said.
Northampton finished 4-2 and tied for third in the boys field.
On Saturday, Northampton beat Columbia (15-12), lost to Amherst (15-6) and beat John Jay (15-6). On Sunday, Hamp beat Four Rivers (15-8) and Lincoln-Sudbury (10-8), and lost to Columbia (10-7).
For the tournament, Amiel Hanley (16 assists) had 18 goals, Sylvan Norris added 11 and Sam Mescon nine. Zach Levitt finished with 18 assists and Zach Dietz 13.
Hanley was strong on the other side of the field with 12 defenses. Levitt also had 12, while James Berger added 10.
