At one this afternoon, two soccer teams will look for playoff gratification in the first round of the ECAC New England Championship tournament. The men's soccer team will square off against the Babson College Beavers at Babson.
The Jumbos are looking to erase the memories of their first round exit from the NESCAC tournament, while the Beavers will be looking to forget their 5-1 drubbing at the hands of Wheaton College in the finals of the New England Men's and Women's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) tournament.
Tufts is the seventh seed in the ECAC tournament, a fact that has not gone over well with the team. "We were very disappointed with our seed," sophomore forward Matt MacGregor said. "We thought we should be seeded higher."
NESCAC rivals Bowdoin (first), and Amherst (third) are both seeded ahead of the Jumbos, as are UMASS-Dartmouth (fourth), Western Connecticut State (fifth), and Keene State (sixth).
"We play in a tough conference, the NESCAC, and we did have a good record," MacGregor said. "But we can't worry too much about whether we should have had a home game or a higher seed. Babson is a team that we all believe we can get a good result against. We just need to go out there and prove to everybody that we deserved a higher seed."
Babson went 14-4-2 this season finishing first in the NEWMAC. After a 1-1-0 start, the Beavers went on an 11 game tear that was eventually stopped by the number one team in the country, the Williams Ephmen. But despite their stellar regular season record, Babson was slammed in the finals of the NEWMAC tournament by Wheaton, 5-1.
"I've seen Babson play," coach Ralph Ferrigno said. "We're a more skilled team. They are hard-working. I'm expecting a one goal game, hopefully it's a goal that will go our way."
Tufts and Babson do have some common opponents, and the results of these games seem to bear out Ferrigno's prediction of a close game. Both the Beavers and the Jumbos defeated MIT by a score of 3-0. Babson topped Lasell 4-1 while the Jumbos won 7-4, and Tufts defeated Gordon College 2-0 while the beavers topped the Fighting Scots 5-1. Williams beat both the Jumbos and the Beavers by scores of 1-0 and 4-2 respectively, and Amherst managed only a tie with Babson but has now beaten Tufts twice.
This season is only the third time that Babson has reached the ECAC tournament. In 1997, they entered the tournament as the number one seed in but were upset by Bowdoin in the quarterfinals. The next year, the Beavers claimed the ECAC New England Championship.
Tufts had a week off following their loss to Amherst in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. For a team that had a number of late season injuries, it was a needed rest.
"It was helpful," Ferrigno said of the week off. "Obviously we'd have liked to play this weekend, but it was helpful as far as injuries go."
In the playoff game, Amherst scored the game winner with only 2:30 remaining when Lord Jeff junior Ryan Goodband headed a corner kick past Tufts goalkeeper Steve McDermid. It was a disappointing loss for the Jumbos who were seeded higher than Amherst in the tournament despite losing to the Lord Jeffs 2-0 at home earlier in this season.
Amherst is seeded third in the ECAC tournament and if the Jumbos defeat Babson, the team may face the Lord Jeffs for the third time this season in the second round. "They have a tough game against Keene State," Ferrigno said. "But we will most likely have to go through them if we want to win this tournament."
Winning the tournament will be a difficult task for the Jumbos, but the competition is not quite as fierce as the NESCAC.
"I think the NESCAC is tougher," Ferrigno said. "There is always a sprinkling of NESCAC teams in the ECAC tournament and we will need to go through them."
MacGregor echoed his coach's sentiments. "Both have a decently tough competition level," MacGregor said. "Not to look past Babson, but it is still probably the NESCAC teams that we will have to deal with."
