With the new season comes new players and new strategies for the field hockey team. The girls are looking to put the dissatisfaction that came when they fell to Bowdoin in the semi-finals in the NESCAC playoff tournament behind them and focus on the present.
"We are really just concentrating on this year as opposed to last year or what we could change from last season. That was then, and this is now," senior tri-captain Lindsay Lionetti said. "Of course we miss the girls that graduated, but when you come to a new season it's the current team that you need to focus on."
Veteran coach Carol Rappoli altered the team's formation on the field from a 4-3-2-1 formation to a 3-2-3-2 in order to account for additions and losses to the team.
"The new formation is really tailored to this team's strengths as opposed to attempting to fill voids left by last year," Lionetti said.
The squad sees much of its strength in its versatility and depth. With 17 of 23 returning players, 10 of whom are juniors and seniors, these women have been playing together for several seasons and know each others' strengths and weaknesses.
Although Rappoli has not secured the starting eleven, the players are confident that any way she fills in the lineup will be a strong one. "When we say that we have depth, we also mean that any player can be put in any position on the field at any given time and perform well," said senior Liesl Bradford, who was a starting defender last year.
The team returns seven of last season's starters, including All-NESCAC Lionetti who accounted for six goals and two assists in the 2000 campaign. Junior Dana Chivvis has notched 17 goals in two seasons and is expected to be one of the top offensive threats in the NESCAC.
Rebounding from a nagging foot and hamstring injury is junior Laura Hacker, who has been out of commission on and off for her two seasons at Tufts but now seems to be back to full throttle.
"She's in really good shape and is pretty much at 100 percent," Bradford said. "If she can stay healthy, we could see some pretty good things from her."
The squad will also look to senior tri-captains Christina Orf and Barbara Szjada, senior Megan Carleton and junior Ursula Stahl. Orf was fifth on the team last year with seven points, while Szjada and Stahl played in all 18 games.
The freshman appear to be promising, though few have the potential to see real playing time. Willow Hagge, a sophomore transfer born in Maine, is also a new addition to the squad.
"We really are a whole new team," Chivvis said. "We are going to be really scrappy and bug the crap out of a couple of teams that think they're a lot better than us. I think we're going to surprise some people in a good way."
"I don't think we necessarily know how or in what ways we have improved from last season, since we haven't played a game yet. I do know that we have changed a lot as a team, and are far more experienced as a whole," Lionetti said.
A new challenge facing the team is the new NESCAC regulation imposed on corner balls. All corner balls must be stopped dead right outside the circle before being brought inside the circle, as opposed to years past when the ball could be stopped anywhere. Since one can only score from inside the circle, this will make it much more difficult to score on corner balls.
"We have to completely reconfigure our corner situation because of this, so we've been working on that a lot during practice," Bradford said.
The Jumbos kick off their season Thursday at Bentley College, where they will play on Astroturf, making for a faster-paced game than they are accustomed to. However, coming off a successful pre-season, the women feel prepared and fit to start up again.
"Pre-season was hard," Chivvis said. "It's always difficult to have eleven days of straight practice. "But we are all in really good shape and our team morale is high. Our captains have done a great job of getting us though it, and getting us psyched for the season."
The team will encounter its first NESCAC rival next Saturday when it faces Middlebury College at home, beginning at 1 p.m.
