The mission is clear for the Tufts field hockey team: Beat Williams on Saturday and guarantee a spot in the first-ever, season-ending NESCAC tournament, or lose and hope to get by with a little help from its NESCAC friends at Conn. College.
The Jumbos enter Saturday's game at 3-5 in NESCAC play, good for seventh in the conference. If they beat the Purple Cows, they automatically qualify for the tournament. If Tufts loses to Williams, however, and Bates beats Conn. College, both the Jumbos and the Bobcats would be tied for seventh place with 3-6 marks. By virtue of Bates' 2-1 victory over Tufts on October 1, the Bobcats would earn the seventh and final NESCAC tournament spot, and the Jumbos would be forced to hang up their shoes for the season. If Conn. College can knock off Bates, a tournament spot for the Jumbos is ensured.
Coach Carol Rappoli's team knows exactly what it will have to do when it takes the field on Homecoming, but knowing what to do and doing it are two separate issues, especially against a powerhouse like Williams. The Purple Cows come into the game ranked third in New England and bring a daunting 7-1 NESCAC record. Despite the impressive pedigree, the Jumbos remain unfazed, as they have played well against Williams in past years.
"They're just like any other NESCAC team," Rappoli said. "Trinity is 1-12, Bowdoin is 12-1 and there aren't that many degrees of separation between them. The only difference is a few lucky breaks."
Last year, the Jumbos posted a huge 4-1 road victory against the Purple Cows, which took Williams out of contention for an NCAA birth. Then, in the ECAC Tournament, the underdog Jumbos knocked off Williams again, ending its season and propelling Tufts into the ECAC finals. In fact, Tufts has beaten Williams three times in the past two years after a nine-year losing streak.
"We're going to make it four Saturday," Rappoli said confidently. "A lot of kids [from last year's Williams' team] are gone, but the players that were there remember last year's game."
The Purple Cows will be coming at Tufts with a fairly different team this time around. They are lead by several young stars including sophomore Stef Noering, who leads the team in scoring with 23 points, and two freshmen - Tori Scott and Molly Jennings - who are second and fourth on the team with 18 and 12 points, respectively.
Williams also plays a sophomore in net. Monelle Quevillon has been between the posts every minute of action so far this season. She's spending quality time on the field, as well, recording seven shutouts and a .50 goals against average (GAA) on only six goals allowed, to go along with her 11-1 record.
Tufts has the firepower to play with the Purple Cows but the Jumbos' leaders are a bit older. Senior defender and co-captain Colette Gaudet leads the way with 15 points. Gaudet has shown her leadership of late, scoring two goals and an assist in the past three games. The senior also has two game-winning goals this season.
Behind Gaudet is junior midfielder Lindsey Lionetti, who has 11 points on the season to go along with a game-winning goal of her own. She is joined in second place on the team by sophomore Dana Chivvis.
In goal, senior Dena Sloan has shown what experience can do for a defense, accumulating a .85 GAA in 822 minutes by stopping 90 of 100 shots this year.
While Gaudet, Lionetti, and Chivvis may be atop the scoring chart for the team, it is going to take a group effort to beat Williams, and recover from Thursday's double-overtime loss to the Amherst Lord Jeffs. In that wrenching defeat, junior Robin Ackerman scored a goal with no time remaining on the clock in the second overtime, ending Tufts' hopes of upsetting the fourth-ranked team in the nation on the road.
"It was a very heartbreaking loss," junior Christina Orf said. "We really deserved that game, we really wanted it."
Tufts will have to shake off the disappointment of the Amherst loss and be focused on Williams if it will have any chance on Saturday. From what the players are saying, though, that should be possible.
"It's just going to make everybody more pumped up to beat Williams," Orf said. "We don't lose on our home field to a NESCAC team, and I don't think that's going to happen. Any frustration will be taken out on them."
Frustration or not, the Jumbos are probably going to have to play their best game of the year at 12 p.m. on Saturday if they plan to clinch a spot in the NESCAC tournament. If not, a loss will mean a lot of waiting and hoping.
"If we lose on Saturday, we will be hanging ourselves," Rappoli said.
