With a chance to upset the top team in the NESCAC, the men's lacrosse team (7-6, 3-5) battled Wesleyan (12-1, 6-0) for a full 60 minutes yesterday, leading early before suffering a disappointing 17-9 loss.
The loss makes Saturday's final regular season game against Conn. College crucial - a win would guarantee Tufts a playoff spot, while a loss might end the Jumbos' season.
Wesleyan's high-octane offense got a taste of its own medicine early yesterday, as Tufts jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first five minutes. Sophomore Alex Kerwin evaded two defenders with a face dodge and fired a bounce shot past Cardinal goalkeeper Lukas Cash for the third goal, forcing Wesleyan to call a timeout.
After a heated huddle discussion, Wesleyan scored a goal to narrow the lead. But soon after, Tufts senior attackman Brian Hwang, playing in his last game on home turf, broke up a pass from Cash on a clear, giving senior co-captain Dan Kollar a wide-open goal.
"We came out hard and took advantage of some opportunities," coach Mike Daly said. "We weren't really trying to play an up-tempo game, but it worked to our advantage early on."
The 4-1 score would prove to be the high water mark for Tufts, though, as the Wesleyan offense cranked up, unleashing seven straight goals over the next twelve minutes. Led by senior John Landay, who was first in the NESCAC with 85 points entering the game, the Cardinals' attack was simply too dominant for the Jumbo defense.
"Wesleyan is a very polished team," Daly said. "They have a few very good attackman who play with a lot of confidence."
Later in the half, juniors Jon Zissi and Brian Cunningham revived the Jumbos' hopes with two quick goals that brought the score to 8-6.
For a few minutes, the Jumbo defense stepped up, creating stops and giving the offense a chance to score. Unfortunately, mental lapses, bad passes, and unnecessary penalties plagued the team, and Wesleyan was able to put together another run before halftime, heading into the locker room up 12-7.
The first half of play saw 19 goals, as both teams had little difficulty finding holes in the defense. The second half, on the other hand, was a much slower-paced affair.
After over seven minutes without a goal, Kerwin found net, making the score 12-8. Tufts' offense was able to posses the ball successfully for most of the third quarter, but struggled to find the open shot against a stalwart Wesleyan defense.
The Cardinals added a goal at the end of the third, and another 23 seconds into the fourth, giving them a six-goal lead. Kollar scored the Jumbos' last goal with 12:13 remaining, pulling the score to 14-9.
Kollar's goal was the 184th of his career, making him the all-time leader in Tufts history, as he surpassed David Perry's 1997 mark of 183.
While Wesleyan did not entirely dominate the second half, the Cardinals were able to capitalize on every Jumbo mistake. Junior goalkeeper Kirk Lutwyler kept Tufts in the game for most of the half, recording a total of 16 saves on the afternoon.
Regardless, the Jumbos were disappointed by their performance, which drops them to 3-5 in conference play.
"What we take out of this game is that we might have to face Wesleyan again in the playoffs, and we will know what to expect," Daly said.
A win in Saturday's finale against Conn. College (7-4, 3-4) guarantees Tufts one of the seven NESCAC Tournament spots. But with a loss, the team would need some serious luck; its playoff hopes would depend on how Amherst and Bates end their respective seasons.
Daly believes the Jumbos' major problem is inconsistency.
"We are going to play our style of lacrosse for 60 minutes, which is something that we haven't done all year," he said. "We won't win playing hard for just five or ten minutes at a time."
