Sometimes things don’t work out quite as they’re planned.
Five years ago, Kat Machamer, an accounting major from Highland Ranch, Colo. arrived on this campus having achieved almost everything a high school soccer player could possibly achieve. She led Cherry Creek High School to three consecutive Centennial League championships and was a three-time all-league selection. She was twice named as a first team All-Colorado performer as well as being a two-time all-Denver Post and all-Rocky Mountain News selection.
To go along with all this, her club teams won five Colorado State Cup championships and the 1997 Far West Regional title. Machamer was also a member of the Olympic Development Program from 1989-1996 and competed in and won the Dallas Cup and Orange Bowl, two of America’s premier amateur soccer tournaments.
In the fall of 1997 she was supposed to step in and help contribute to a Minutewoman squad that had reached five consecutive Sweet 16’s. That is when it all went pear-shaped. Machamer suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her right knee prior to coming to Amherst and was lost for the entire season.
“I think it’s hard to come in hurt,” Machamer said. “You don’t really know anybody on the team, but Coach [Jim Rudy] was really good about getting me involved with the team. I traveled and everything so that helped a lot.”
After watching UMass win the Atlantic 10 Championship before falling 2-0 to Harvard in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in ’97, Machamer concentrated on getting herself ready to make her debut the next season. It was a goal she achieved, appearing in 16 of the Minutewomen’s 21 matches. However, UMass slumped to its first ever sub-.500 record (10-11) and failed to qualify for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1990.
“I had a lot of problems so it took me a while to get into the college game physically,” she said. “Intellectually I think it helped me to sit out and watch. I think I saw a lot of stuff that I wouldn’t have seen if I had gone straight in playing [out of high school]. Sitting on the bench, you see things that you wouldn’t notice while playing so I think that helped me a lot.”
Apart from simply stepping onto the playing field that season, the brightest moment of the ’98 campaign for Machamer was scoring her first ever collegiate goal in a 4-2 win over Colgate. Machamer also added an assist in that match and two more in a 5-0 triumph over Virginia Tech to finish the season with five points.
“I remember it was with my right foot so it was exciting because of the injury,” Machamer said of her goal against Colgate. “It’s always nice to score and it’s an icebreaker to get your first, so it was exciting.”
However, as much as ’98 was a success for Machamer, 1999 was again a setback as she was once again hampered by injury, appearing in just seven games, tallying just a single goal and one assist. The next season, her junior year, was only slightly better, as she was able to appear in 14 matches, starting 11 of them, notching a career-high seven points on two goals and three assists.
“She was a little different player [following the injury,]” Rudy said. “She was a little slower but she utilized what she had very well. She had a good brain and a sweet left foot. She knows what she can and can’t do; she played older than her years. She’s one of the smarter players that have played here.”
That set the stage for this season, her last hurrah. Finally gone was the lingering shadow of injury and Machamer was finally able to perform at her full potential. All the promise that she had shown in high school was evident as Machamer went on to have a career year, setting career-highs in games played (15), goals (4) and assists (6) as well as notching her first career hat trick in a 7-0 victory over Duquesne at Totman Field on Oct. 14.
Two days before scoring her hat trick, Machamer tallied three assists in a 5-0 win over St. Bonaventure, giving her nine points on the weekend. For her effort Kat was named A-10 Player of the Week, WHMP Athlete of the Week, as well as being named to the Soccer America Team of the Week.
“I was determined that she was going to have a really good senior year. That was one of my goals as a coach,” Rudy said. “I appreciate the adversity she’s been under and what she’s done to get where she is. This kid is one of our top workers in the weight room, in fitness, in health habits, cooperation. I feel she’s maximized here and I’m really pleased she had a great senior year.”
Helping Kat in producing that great senior year were her two fellow central midfielders, sophomore Michelle Luttati and junior Martha Conover. Not only did those three contribute 10 goals and 19 assists in 2001, they helped dictate the pace of the UMass attack and provided an important link between the Minutewoman defense and frontrunners.
“I think we have a great connection and we play a lot alike. All three of us are very similar in that we like to pass the ball around and make the simple connections, and we all play very smart,” Machamer said. “I think they’re two of the best players I’ve ever played with. It’s really nice to play on a team that has that connection in the middle. I love playing with those two.”
Despite all the injury problems and not playing in an NCAA tournament game during her five-year UMass career, Machamer leaves focusing solely on the positives of the experience.
“Being so far from home, the team has been my family, especially Martha. I’ve been truly honored to play in the middle with my best friend.”
