Williams Men's Lax Upsets Amherst in League Quarters

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AMHERST, Mass. – Down two at the half, the seventh-seeded Williams College men’s lacrosse team outscored second-seeded Amherst, 7-4 in the second half to stun the hosts, 11-10, and advance to the NESCAC semifinals next Saturday at Tufts.
 
The win was the third in a row for the Ephs (10-6) and their second straight over a nationally ranked opponent. The Ephs topped No. 5 Middlebury in their final NESCAC regular season contest and then upset No. 6 Amherst on Saturday.
 
"We're becoming a more complete team,” Williams coach George McCormack said. “We've been effective on offense and defense and were winning faceoffs and handling special situations well."
 
Tanner MacIvor scored the game-winner with 2:06 remaining after Amherst had netted three unanswered goals to tie the contest at 10. MacIvor's shot from 11 yards out to the left of Amherst goalie Thomas Gilligan went through Gilligan's legs on a bounce and into the net.
 
The Ephs’ Brian Bissell won 17 of 25 faceoffs (68 percent). The Ephs had a slight edge in ground balls, collecting 38 to 35 for Amherst.
 
Michael Fahey, Thomas Fowler and Peter Crane all scored three times for Williams and Fahey had a team high two assists.
 
WOMEN’S LACROSSE
HARTFORD, Conn. – Trinity College defeated Williams College by a score of 18-4 in Saturday's NESCAC Quarterfinal matchup.
 
The Ephs (5-11) matched the Bantams (14-2) goal-for-goal in the first 14 minutes. The Ephs saw impressive goals from seniors Alyssa Maddalone and tri-captain Anne Rehfuss, with another goal by junior Jenna Chodos. 
 
Trinity ran away with the ball in the remainder of the first half, scoring several goals in the last 12 minutes of the half. 
 
SOFTBALL
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  -- Six Williams seniors were feted on Senior Day Saturday, and they celebrated by delivering many key hits. 
 
But there were several other heroes as well, including freshman Mackenzie Murphy, who hit a lead-off, walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the ninth in the first game to give Williams a 3-2 win and the NESCAC West Division title in the first game of a doubleheader sweep of Middlebury. 
 
The Ephs (29-8, 10-2) beat the Panthers, 3-2 and 11-3. Williams will host the 2016 NESCAC Tournament beginning Friday.
 
"All of our seniors have given us such great leadership, our team karma comes from them, they are the reason we can continue to come back" Ephs' head coach Kris Herman said. "At the same time, we have a really good team 1 through 19 and i thought we showed that today; everybody contributed to these wins."
 
The Ephs needed to win one game Saturday to win the West.
 
BASEBALL
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- The Williams College baseball team went into Saturday with the possibility of reaching the NESCAC playoffs with two wins today sweeping Hamilton in the series.
 
The Ephs split with Hamilton, winning game one, 3-0, but falling to the Continentals, 8-1 in game two. The Ephs moved to 12-18 overall and 6-6 in the NESCAC and Hamilton moved to 15-14 overall and 4-8 in the NESCAC.
 
With the loss in game two the Ephs were eliminated from NESCAC playoff contention.
 
WOMEN’S TENNIS
BOSTON -- The Williams College women’s tennis team ended its season on a high note with a two-match sweep of Babson College and Tufts University on Saturday.
 
Williams (16-3, 6-1 NESCAC) blanked the Beavers 9-0, before defeating the Jumbos 7-2.
 
Babson was coming off a 7-2 loss to Brandeis University, while No. 17 Tufts was riding an upset victory over No. 6 Bowdoin College. Bowdoin is responsible for the one in-conference loss the Ephs suffered this season.
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Mount Greylock School Committee Votes Slight Increase to Proposed Assessments

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Mount Greylock Regional School Committee on Thursday voted unanimously to slightly increase the assessment to the district's member towns from the figures in the draft budget presented by the administration.
 
The School Committee opted to lower the use of Mount Greylock's reserve account by $70,000 and, instead, increase by that amount the share of the fiscal year 2025 operating budget shared proportionally by Lanesborough and Williamstown taxpayers.
 
The budget prepared by the administration and presented to the School Committee at its annual public hearing on Thursday included $665,000 from the district's Excess and Deficiency account, the equivalent of a municipal free cash balance, an accrual of lower-than-anticipated expenses and higher-than-anticipated revenue in any given year.
 
That represented a 90 percent jump from the $350,000 allocated from E&D for fiscal year 2024, which ends on June 30. And, coupled with more robust use of the district's tuition revenue account (7 percent more in FY25) and School Choice revenue (3 percent more), the draw down on E&D is seen as a stopgap measure to mitigate a spike in FY25 expenses and an unsustainable budgeting strategy long term, administrators say.
 
The budget passed by the School Committee on Thursday continues to rely more heavily on reserves than in years past, but to a lesser extent than originally proposed.
 
Specifically, the budget the panel approved includes a total assessment to Williamstown of $13,775,336 (including capital and operating costs) and a total assessment to Lanesborough of $6,425,373.
 
As a percentage increase from the FY24 assessments, that translates to a 3.90 percent increase to Williamstown and a 3.38 percent increase to Lanesborough.
 
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