As the women's soccer team prepares to play NESCAC-rival Bowdoin tomorrow afternoon, it enters one of the most important stretches of its season. Tufts is roughly halfway through its schedule, but that schedule will become more rigorous as the Jumbos play four of their six remaining regular-season games in the next eight days.
"It'll be a challenge," said senior Mara Schanfield, the goalkeeper. "But it's midway through the season, so I think we'll be up to it," she said. "I think it'll spark some more intensity and fire."
At 5-3, the Jumbos are two games off last year's record-setting pace, but in no way are in a bad position considering the high level of competition in the NESCAC. Tufts is ranked fifth in its conference, but is only a half game behind number-two Bates.
"With a schedule like ours, you're bound to lose some games, but you just can't let it affect you that much," coach Martha Whiting said. "You have to take it one day at a time. If you lose, you have to put it behind you."
The next week is of utmost importance, as three of the team's four games are NESCAC matches. Tufts enters the stretch with a 3-2 conference record, and must pull through to secure a strong seed in the conference tournament. A 6-2 record would put the Jumbos in the running for the top spot, while dropping to 3-5 would place them in danger of missing the cutoff. Only the top seven teams move on to the postseason.
"Everything comes down to how you finish," Whiting said. "If we pick it up a notch and finish strong, that's what matters. We still have it in us, as long as we believe in ourselves. And we're still playing Williams and Amherst, who are both ahead of us [in the conference] - that's opportunity."
To get the three victories, the Jumbos must maintain a high level of intensity in the first half, something they showed positive signs of doing against Brandeis, and finish off their scoring chances.
In Tuesday's 1-0 victory over Brandeis, Whiting made a drastic change in her starting lineup, starting six different field players, including five freshmen, to raise first-half intensity.
"I thought [starting the freshmen] was a good decision," senior co-captain Katie Ruddy said. "The best strategy is to play whoever has been showing the best in practice and in games. The subs had been showing a lot of intensity and energy when they went in, so Martha decided to start them to help us become more of a first half team. And this year we have the depth for her to switch around players."
The switch worked, and Tufts dominated play throughout the opening period. But Whiting says she will return to her original lineup for tomorrow's game.
"I was trying to jolt some people into reality," she said. "We had nothing to lose in doing that, but the starters have more experience and leadership capabilities."
Tufts converted on just one of 36 shots against the Judges on Tuesday, though several shots caught the crossbar or sailed just wide. Near misses have been the trend for Tufts this season. The team has tallied just 13 goals on 184 shots, while opponents have put in ten scores in 88 attempts. But the Jumbos say they're not worried about their capability to put points on the board. "I'm confident that we can put everything together," Schanfield said. "We're going to take it one day at a time, and focus on raising our intensity and finishing shots."
"They just need to play the game they know how to play, and stop thinking and worrying about the other factors so much," assistant coach Andrea Licari added.
Tomorrow, the Jumbos play host to the Bowdoin Polar Bears, who are 4-2-1 this season. They are just 1-2-1 in the NESCAC, but that record does not reflect the true ability of the squad, which has out-scored its opponents 18-7 on the year.
Bowdoin's two losses came against a still-undefeated Williams team and Middlebury, last year's conference champion. The Polar Bears went on to tie number-three Amherst, holding their own through 120 minutes of scoreless play, and earlier defeated Wesleyan 6-1. Bowdoin also posted a 4-0 victory against Babson, a team that defeated Tufts in its season opener.
"Bowdoin is 1-2-1 [in NESCAC], but they're good," Whiting said. "They're sneaky, and their record is deceiving."
Last year, Bowdoin beat Tufts 4-1 in the regular season, but the Jumbos avenged that loss with a 3-1 victory in the conference tournament. The two teams met a third time in the NCAAs, where Tufts advanced on penalty kicks after a 0-0 tie. Bowdoin has averaged over 12 wins per season since 1990, and is the only NESCAC team to have gone to the NCAA Tournament six times.
"I'm really excited about playing Bowdoin," Ruddy said. "It's a team that we are always out to beat."
Tufts will have home field advantage this weekend, a factor that has become increasingly significant for the Jumbos over the last two seasons, during which time they have amassed a 15-1 record on Kraft Field. This weekend is the first this year in which both the soccer teams and the football team will have home games on the same day, which promises to boost crowd support.
"It's an exciting thing for us, and it pumps us up even more," Whiting said. "We thrive on the excitement. These are the days you love to play. It's a conference game, lots of people are around, and we're in the hunt - it's why we play."
On another positive note, the Jumbos will have the services of senior co-captain Katie Ruddy this weekend. Ruddy left Tuesday's game limping after being kicked in the leg, but did not re-aggravate the injury that kept her out of three games earlier this season. Ruddy will be at full strength for Saturday's contest, when she will test out her leg against Bowdoin at 2:30 p.m. at Kraft Field.
