Success has always been a part of the women's soccer program at Tufts. In its relatively brief 22-year history, the team has seen just one losing season and is 192-99-38 overall. In the past three years alone, the Jumbos have won the NCAA New England Championship twice, have compiled a 39-12-4 record, and lost out on a National Championship on a last-minute goal last season.
The 2001 Jumbos enter the season still riding the tsunami-sized wave of last year's second-place finish, ranking second in the nation and first in New England in the NSCAA preseason poll. But while the excitement of 2000's tournament run still lingers in the minds of players and students alike, the realities of a new season have cast a shadow over the start of the 2001 campaign.
Coming in atop the New England region, the Jumbos were sure to see an increased level of competition from their opponents, who are lined up to take their shots at the top-ranked squad. As the team to beat, Tufts has assumed a more prominent place on opponents' schedules, motivating other teams to come out and play harder against them.
In Saturday's season opener against Babson, the Jumbos were stunned by a 4-1 trouncing, one of the most lopsided losses in recent memory. And with Tufts entering the game as the number-two team in the country, the effect is magnified.
"It makes [the loss] seem so much worse," coach Martha Whiting said. "You could tell that they were gunning for us. Even from their reaction after the game - it was like they had just won a national championship."
That defeat came on the heels of a 3-1 loss in a preseason scrimmage at the hands of a traditionally weak MIT squad. Whiting described the team in that scrimmage as possibly being a bit too overconfident.
So have the Jumbos snapped under the pressure?
Not at all, according to Whiting. Despite losing to a team that she admits "we should have been able to beat," Tufts showed signs of strength on the field against Babson. Even though they played most of the game a man down and without both their starting goalkeeper and their leading scorer, the Jumbos stayed in control, dominating the play for the majority of the second half, an impressive accomplishment under the circumstances.
"We had moments of poorness [on Saturday], but we weren't bad overall," Whiting said. "We had a lot of situations that would have been easier to deal with had this been later on in the year."
The Jumbos have responded to the increased outside pressure by focusing more on themselves. Since the scrimmage loss, Tufts has started to bear down, working hard as a team to do what it has to do to reach the goals and expectations it has set for itself.
"Our intensity level was a lot higher [against Babson] than it has been, especially in the second half, and we were able to gel better than we have so far," Whiting said.
"We have made some goals and set some objectives," senior goalkeeper Mara Schanfield said. "We decided to take things seriously and play hard every minute of the game."
Whiting admits that the team's goals are high but insists that they are also both reasonable and reachable. "There is definitely pressure from last year," Whiting said. "Part of it is not being able to completely get it out of our heads, even if it is subconscious. But we need to see it as more of a challenge, and use it as both a challenge and a motivator. We want to maintain the level of success of last year, and not worry about the pressure."
And while Saturday's loss may have an effect on the team's attitude, as a non-conference game, it will have virtually no bearing on postseason play.
"I'm a little relieved that [the loss] wasn't a conference game," Whiting said. "It counts morale-wise, but not statistically. But you always want to win the first game of the year. It sets the tone for the rest of the season."
The Jumbos will attempt to correct that tone as they open their NESCAC schedule today at Wesleyan. Tufts defeated the Cardinals 2-0 at home last year.
"I think we're just learning to play with each other still," Schanfield said. There are "lots of new faces, and we're learning where each other are on the field - but that will come from playing together more."
