The women's soccer team dropped to 8-5 on the year with a
2-0 loss at non-conference WPI last night. The Engineers took the lead early, countering a strong Jumbo attack with a goal by junior midfielder Katie O'Neill to take a 1-0 lead in the first 15 minutes.
WPI later added a second goal when a miscommunication by the Tufts defense led to a cross by freshman Erin Thompson going into the net.
"Our team plays better when we can keep the ball on the ground, and we didn't do that very well, and they capitalized on that," assistant coach Andrea Licari said. "We played flat and didn't attack as much as we should. The loss made us really frustrated, but it makes people want to get back on the field and kick some ass, so that frustration is the motivation for our next game."
"It was a tough game," senior Sara Standish added. "Playing on turf was hard for us, but we have no excuses. We know that we're a better team than how we played on the field, so it's a hard loss, but we're really excited for our game on Saturday."
Tufts will have a chance to redeem itself when it wraps up its
regular-season schedule tomorrow afternoon at Williams. The Ephs have clinched the top seed in the NESCAC Tournament, and currently are ranked 12th in the country and second in New England, behind only 15-0 Wheaton.
Having already secured a spot in the postseason tournament, the Jumbos are not technically in a must-win situation, but that does not lessen their desire to take out the top-seeded team and make a statement to the rest of the conference. And with last night's loss, the team will be looking to rebuild momentum heading into the NESCAC Tournament.
"I don't think we need to beat them, but we really want to," coach Martha Whiting said. "And it would be great to beat them going into Sunday. It may even effect how we're viewed by the other teams, having just beaten a team no one else was able to beat. Also, there's not as
much pressure on us at this point, and sometimes when you don't have a lot of pressure on you, you tend to play better."
Even without the added pressure, Williams will be a tough team to take down, as it has put together by far the most impressive season of any NESCAC team this year, compiling a 12-0 overall mark heading into the weekend. But despite their unblemished record, the Ephs have not had the easiest of times this year. They narrowly escaped with a few close calls, giving Whiting reason to believe her team can be the one to spoil their perfect season.
Early in the year, Williams needed to go to overtime to squeeze out a 3-2 victory over a Wesleyan team that has won just twice all season. Earlier this month, after giving up two goals in a 5-2 victory against Bates, the Ephs went to double-overtime the next day against Colby before notching a 2-1. This Tuesday, the team was once again given a run for its money, edging out Conn. College 3-2. Colby, Conn, and Wesleyan are currently eighth, ninth, and tenth in the conference, respectively.
"I think they're beatable, it's just that no one has done it yet," Whiting said. "We're the last ones to get a crack at them. I think that we really have a good chance at beating them on Saturday, although it is always tough to play out there. We just need to be ready to go."
The outcome of the game will play a role in Tufts' final position in the NESCAC standings, but more importantly will also help set the tone for the tournament. Over the last few years, the Jumbos' play against the Ephs has been a good indication of the team's postseason potential.
Tufts closed out its regular season last year with a 2-0 victory over Williams, earning the first victory over the Ephs since 1990. The win gave the Jumbos a momentum boost heading into both the NESCAC and NCAA Tournaments, where they finished second in each.
"Last year, beating them in our last game gave us so much confidence," Whiting said. "So I feel like winning this game would be huge for us, especially going into the tournament."
The two teams tied in 1998 after battling back and forth through 120 minutes of hard-fought, scoreless play. Tufts proceeded to win the New England region in the NCAA Tournament, at the time the best finish in the team's history. In 1999, the Jumbos lost 2-1 to the Ephs, and went on to lose their first-round game in the ECAC Tournament.
Immediately following Saturday's game, the Jumbos will board a bus headed for Lewiston, ME, where Bates will host the first-round of the NESCAC Tournament on Sunday. But despite having to prepare for the game on the road, Whiting is confident that her team will be up to the challenge.
"The team is pretty confident now going into the tournament," Whiting said. "We feel like we're hopefully starting to peak at the right time."
The coach points to her seniors - the only players on the team with two years of NCAA Tournament experience - as the key factors in raising the team's level of play in the final stretch - the most important part of the season.
"The seniors deserve a little bit of credit for just picking up the level of intensity overall. They've done a good job," she said. "It's nice to have your seniors step up at the end of the year. It means so much to them, but it's important for the others to really see them fighting so hard, every day in practice and in the games. It's fantastic."
The final conference standings, and therefore the first-round match-ups, will not be finalized until after Saturday's games. Tufts, Amherst, Bates, Bowdoin, and Middlebury are all within a half game of one another, so the Jumbos could end up anywhere between the number two and number six slots, while either Colby or Trinity will finish seventh.
"There's so much parity [in the NESCAC]," Whiting said. "We have teams that are beating teams you would never expect them to beat and then losing to teams that they shouldn't lose to. I think that it just shows the strength of the conference in general in that you can't go into any game really expecting to win. No one really can be sure of much of anything until the end of the year."
