Kristyn Dunleavy ’07 and Amherst College advanced to the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball National Championship game after a 69-59 win over Christopher Newport University yesterday evening. After falling in the national semifinals in the last two seasons, the Lord Jeffs finally broke the trend to earn a berth in their first ever championship game thanks to 10 points and 5 rebounds from Dunleavy, in just 13 minutes. In perhaps the best performance of her career, she scored several huge buckets down the stretch to keep the Captains at bay and lead Amherst within one win of the promised land. Their crack at history will come tonight at 8:00pm vs. Washington University (St. Louis).

Caroline Stedman ’12 carried Amherst through the first half by scoring 14 points, while seniors Sarah Leyman and Kristyn Dunleavy combined for 22 in the second period to lead Amherst (31-1) past the Captains (29-4).

Amherst’s lead hovered between two and eight points for a span of 15 minutes and 24 seconds, but the Jeffs began to pull away when Leyman converted a tough three-point play midway through the second period, bringing the score to 50-41.

From there, Dunleavy took over the game and played the best stretch of her career, as all 10 of her points came in the final eight minutes of the game. In addition to playing phenomenally on the defensive end, Dunleavy accounted for six consecutive Amherst points on two free throws, a jumper, and a putback after an offensive rebound. Dunleavy’s spark gave Amherst a 56-46 advantage with only 6:03 to play

~ Amherst Sports Information

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