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 reached double figures in goals (11) in just three games played to open the season.

“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 won its first three games 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 was off to a hot start early in the season.

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 looking to improve on win output after a 6-12 season in 2024.