Field hockey continued its downward slide yesterday afternoon when it lost for the third time in the last four games, this time 2-1 to the Wesleyan Cardinals. The defeat comes on the heels of a disappointing 2-1 loss to Bowdoin College on the road.
Yesterday's loss pushes the Jumbos to a 2-4 standing in the NESCAC, as well as 5-5 overall. But surprisingly enough, the women took the loss in stride.
"We have three more league games," senior Mia Baron said. "We're not counting ourselves out by any means."
Less than seven minutes into yesterday's game, Cardinal sophomore Sonya Behnke set up freshman Jenna Flateman's seventh goal of the season. The Jumbos matched the score just a few minutes later as senior co-captain Colette Gaudet netted one on a penalty stroke. The tally was Gaudet's third of the season.
Visiting Weselyan edged ahead once again at 13:57 when sophomore Laura Pfeiffenberger claimed her eighth goal of the season for the game winner. Wesleyan shined in the neutral zone throughout the first half, containing Tufts to its end.
The Jumbos were also hindered by the absence of sophomore forward Laura Hacker, who was forced to watch from the sidelines with an injury.
In a somewhat scrappy second half, Tufts seemed to dominate in Wesleyan's defensive end. The Jumbo offense worked Cardinal goalie Taryn Hutchins-Cabibi, who posted five of her seven saves in the second stanza. Tufts' defense stepped it up in the second frame, limiting the Wesleyan offense to only three shots on goal. Senior goalie Dena Sloan had five of her eight saves in the first half.
"We played much better in the second half," Baron said. "We just couldn't find the goal."
Baron's teammate Lindsay Lionetti agreed. "I thought we really picked it up defensively in the second half," she said. "We just really need to work on our play in the offensive circle."
"I'm disappointed that it was a loss," junior Lionetti added. "A loss is never comforting, but we still played well. It's not that we're playing terribly, we're just not putting the goals in."
The primary obstacle the squad has faced this season has been its inability to find the net on a consistent basis.
"Wesleyan is a very high scoring team, but their defense was not that strong," Baron said. "We had a lot of shots but simply could not capitalize on them... that's a recent trend for us lately."
Junior Meghan Carleton echoed Baron's sentiments. "We are capable of stepping up and playing with intensity even after we're down," she said. "Unfortunately we just can't capitalize on our scoring."
"We have a wealth of talent," Carleton said. "We're young, and it's not that we are inexperienced, its just that we're not always making the right decisions."
The team remains home for the remainder of the week, facing Gordon College on Thursday afternoon. The following three matches will be crucial to the future of the Brown and Blue. Trinity, Amherst, and Williams, the squad's last three opponents of the campaign, all pose a major threats to the Jumbos' chances of post-season play.
"These are must-wins for us," junior Liesl Bradford said. "Not only do we need to boost our standings, we need more confidence heading into the playoffs."
"Once we're in the tournament it's a race," Baron concluded. "We get to start over again, and in years past it's been a great comeback situation for us."
