AMHERST — Karta Khalsa weighed her options in the pounding rain.
Amherst Regional’s girls ultimate team was tied with Four Rivers in the Amherst Invitational championship game Sunday. The next point would send the game to halftime regardless of who scored, so momentum hung suspended.
Hattie Carolan burst to the right side of the end zone, and Khalsa zipped her a sideline pass for a one-goal lead heading into halftime. It started an eight-goal run by the Hurricanes that clinched a 14-6 victory.
“We came out of half with so much energy. They came out of half with much less energy,” Amherst junior Rachel Oram-Brown said. “Once we got that train rolling, our energy just kept going up. The second half was a huge mental game. We kept feeding off each other.”
Oram-Brown and Khalsa played a major role in the run. They contributed to five of Amherst’s eight consecutive goals. Oram-Brown threw four scores in the second half, and Karta caught three of them, including the decisive 14th point to end the game.
“We’ve had a lot of years together on the team,” Oram-Brown said. “We know where each other will be.”
Once Karta landed with the disc in her possession and two feet down, she tossed it aside and ran to hug her teammates. It was Amherst’s first title since 2016 in its home tournament and 19th overall. The Hurricanes won eight in a row between 2009 and 2016.
“This was my sixth AI, I started in middle school, so I was like I better win this one, it’s my last one,” Amherst senior Sydney Zobel said. “It was beautiful.”
Zobel anchored Amherst’s defense and provided an outlet for the Hurricanes moving the disc up the field.
“She’s an amazing athlete with this huge arsenal of skills. When she can unleash like that, I think it comes from a place where she’s dialed in, can turn off her brain and just play,” Amherst coach Hannah Baranes said.
Though they finished the game with a flourish, Amherst needed time to settle into the game. The Hurricanes traded points with Four Rivers through the early going and trailed 2-1 on a throw from Xhhu Arfa to Anna Goldstein. They wrestled the lead back 5-4 on a beautiful long throw from Khalsa to Lisa Knapp and didn’t trail again.
“It says a lot about our team that we could play this super-tight first half, not let if faze us, then step up and roll,” Baranes said.
Entering the Amherst Invitational, the Hurricanes knew where their floor was. Winning the tournament showed them how high their ceiling still is.
“I think the whole team is so pumped that we get to keep working together,” Baranes said. “We can’t wait for states.”
The state championships are in two weeks in Northampton.
Northampton’s girls team fell in the tournament’s semifinals 13-4 against Four Rivers. The Blue Devils were scheduled to play Newton North in the third-place game, but both teams opted not to play because of the weather.
In the Division II tournament, Amherst’s junior varsity placed second, falling to the Four Rivers JV 13-8 in the final. Williston Northampton was fifth.