 "Photo: Virginia Bledsoe / Tufts Daily")
For the men’s lacrosse team, winning is no longer enough. The team has dominated regular season play year after year and has spent much of the past decade in the top 20 nationally. Yet postseason success has continued to evade the Jumbos, who have never won the NESCAC Tournament and have never made it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
But this year, the No. 9 Jumbos look to change all of that.
“Winning games is obviously a big thing, but we are always geared to getting to our goal, which is winning the NESCACs and winning the NCAA Championship,” All−American junior attacker D.J. Hessler said. “In all of our lockers we have a goal sheet, at the end of the year; we need to be at our best. Because just winning games isn’t what we set out to do.”
Two of the cornerstones of the Tufts offense that led the NESCAC in goals per game this past season, Hessler and fellow junior attacker Ryan Molloy, will be returning. Hessler led the conference in points and assists last year, while Molloy was second on the team in goals.
The Jumbos will also continue to retain the services of sophomore midfielder Nick Rhoads and senior tri−captain Mike Droesch. The two combined to take almost every faceoff for the Jumbos last season and won about 55 percent of them. Droesch was also a key to the scoring offense, finishing with the third−most assists on the team.
“The loss of Clem [McNally (LA ’09)] was hard, but the experience in our midfield is going to be huge, and some guys who didn’t get a chance last year are going to step up,” Molloy said. “Honestly, I think we are going to be better on the attack than we were last year.”
This could be vital to the team’s success, as the Jumbos defense is much less experienced. Brett Holm, who will be coaching the defense for his second year, will have to deal with the losses of Jordan Yarboro (LA ’09) and Danny Bialosky (LA ’09). The defense now has only four upperclassmen: junior Alec Bialosky and seniors Darius Bittle−Dockery, Evan Crosby and tri−captain Eytan Saperstein. The young group will look to improve on last season, when the team allowed the second most shots in the NESCAC.
“Communication is definitely the number one area we need to improve,” Alec Bialosky said. “As long as everyone is on the same page and going full speed, it shouldn’t be an issue. A young team is going to make some mistakes, but if we play hard the mistakes will make up for themselves.”
Tufts can ill afford a repeat of that high number of shots allowed, as for the first time in four years the Jumbos will not have the sure−handed Matt Harrigan at goal. Instead, junior Bryan Petillo, sophomore Steven Foglietta, and freshman Tyler Page will be competing to earn the starting job. Between the three, they have spent fewer than 120 minutes in a collegiate goal, a sharp contrast to Harrigan. The defense will need to keep some of the pressure off of the young goalkeepers until they can get better acclimated to the position.
“I feel any one of our goalies on the roster can step in and play,” Bialosky said. “I feel confident in every one of them and I’m not worried about it at all. They are all capable of stepping in and filling [Harrigan’s] shoes.”
The road through the NESCAC will be just as perilous as ever. The conference boasts four top−20 teams, including No. 19 Bowdoin, No. 11 Wesleyan and No. 7 Middlebury. Middlebury, the defending national semifinalist, should be favored to win the conference crown, but it is by no means out of reach for Tufts. Though the Jumbos have dropped four straight to the Panthers, two of the games were decided by just one point.
“When you play any team in the NESCAC, you know its going to be a game,” Hessler said. “Top to bottom it’s competitive all the time. Middlebury is a very good team, and they will always capitalize on your mistakes. We just haven’t put together a complete game, and if we make mistakes they are going to beat us.”
Things do not get much easier in the Jumbos’ out−of−conference schedule, with games scheduled against No. 20 Skidmore and No. 17 Western New England. The game against Western New England holds extra significance for the Jumbos, as they look to avenge a first−round loss to the Golden Bears in the NCAA Tournament last year.
“That game is definitely circled on the calendar,” Molloy said. “It is a huge game for our program, because they are always a good team. It is always a fun game, and it is a game we want to win year in and year out.”
While many questions remain in the Tufts locker room, there is no doubt that the team is set up for success. With a top−10 ranking and a lethal offense, the Jumbos have the tools to compete with any team in the country. But as they approach their season−opening game on the road against Amherst on Saturday, the team knows that this year, there is no room for error.
“Everyone has been doing a lot of work in the offseason preparing for this season,” Bialosky said. “I am looking forward to playing against someone with a different colored helmet this weekend and showing what we can do.”
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