In brisk and windy conditions, the women's lacrosse team suffered a heartbreaking defeat yesterday afternoon at the hands of Amherst. Able to take advantage of questionable officiating, the Lord Jeffs held on down the stretch for a 9-8 victory.
Down by as many as five goals, the Jumbos rebounded to within one on senior co-captain Jenn Gregorian's goal with 1:29 remaining in the game. But it was too little, too late, and the loss lowered Tufts' NESCAC record to 1-5, hurting the Jumbos' waning playoff chances.
Amherst, which entered the game holding fourth place in the national power rankings and third place in the NESCAC, wasted little time in asserting its offensive prowess, as the Jumbos found themselves in a 2-1 hole five minutes into the game.
Three minutes later, Tufts evened the score at two, when sophomore Dana Chivvis shoveled a backhanded goal just beyond the reach of Amherst goaltender Jessica Thaxton.
The Lord Jeffs responded at the 17:40 mark of the first half, going up 3-2. Amherst never looked back from that point, rattling off five unanswered goals to tale a 7-2 lead with 2:36 left in the half. Amherst senior co-captain Kristin Osborn recorded all of her team-leading three goals during this stretch.
Tufts was able to narrow the margin going into the half when Gregorian netted her team-leading 26th goal of the season, making the score 7-3.
Amherst restored its five goal lead just over two minutes into the second half, and appeared poised to run away with the game. Tufts refused to go quietly, however, and steadily cut the Amherst lead to 8-6 on one of Chivvis' three goals with 8:06 remaining.
The Lord Jeffs' offense, which had been quelled for over twenty minutes by a stalwart Tufts defense, finally broke through with 7:17 remaining in the game. Amherst sophomore Erin Beaumont ended the Jumbos' run, extending the lead to 9-6.
The Jumbos continued the offensive attack, though, cutting the lead down to 9-8 on Gregorian's second goal of the game. But despite two scoring opportunities in the final ten seconds, Tufts was unable to capitalize as the clock expired.
Following the game, there was doubt about some of the calls in the closing minutes. "I thought it was the worst officiating I've seen this season," Coach Carol Rappoli said following the game. "In the end officiating doesn't determine games, but when you have fifty bad calls down the stretch, it really hurts."
Despite the officiating, the team was proud of its effort against the high-quality Lord Jeffs, who are now 5-1 in the NESCAC.
"I thought we played great," Rappoli said. "We played very well defensively for the whole game."
The defeat put the Jumbos in a difficult spot in terms of postseason chances. Tufts has seen the most difficult part of its schedule already, but will have to win all of its remaining contests against weaker teams.
"We're in a position now where we're going to have to run the table," Rappoli said. "I feel that we're very able to do that with the teams we have coming up, considering how we've played in our past few games"
Rappoli warns against letting up in the final games, however. "It will have to take the same effort that we put in today if we want to do that," she said.
