With four games remaining and the playoff spot on the line, the women's basketball team (9-10, 1-4) will begin the first leg of its four-game road trip tomorrow. The Jumbos, who will play at Williams tomorrow night and then travel up to Middlebury for the Saturday matinee, have the daunting task of playing two high-caliber teams with a combined 32-9 season record.
At 1-4, Tufts is tied with Wesleyan for seventh in the conference, and will need two or three more wins to secure the seventh and final playoff spot. This position is not unfamiliar to the team; it stood at 1-4 last year in the conference, and went on to win three of its final four games to earn the fifth playoff spot.
"We just need to go in and play," coach Janice Savitz said. "We will not do anything differently. We have been in this position before and we know what we have to do."
Losing its last two games by a combined five points - with both games being decided at the buzzer - the team has displayed a flair for the dramatic. Despite the losses, team confidence remains high. Given last year's performance down the stretch, Jumbo fans should expect a similar playoff push, aside from the home field advantage, which will not be in the team's favor.
"Obviously it would be nice if these last games were at home," junior co-captain Hillary Dunn said. "In the first semester we played a lot of games on the road though, so we are used to it. We're just going to take it one game at a time."
Williams (5-1, 16-5) has enjoyed success this season under the leadership of captains Kate Stumpo and Laura Crum. Stumpo leads the team with 13.3 points per game, and Melissa Skeffington has shot 41-95 from three point range - an impressive .432 percent clip. Last Saturday, the guard nailed seven threes en route to a Williams record setting 36 point outburst.
Last year, the Jumbos defeated the Purple Cows 75-64 in front of an energetic crowd in Cousens Gym, as junior Emily Goodman scored a game-high 23 points. Two years ago, the Jumbos also upset Williams 65-64 at home.
"The past two seasons we beat Williams at home, so we have plenty of confidence going into that game," Dunn said.
Last Saturday, the basketball team found a key piece to its puzzle - defense. It held second nationally ranked Bowdoin to 50 points in the near upset. The team will look to continue the trend this weekend, specifically focusing on transition defense since pushing the ball up-court quickly is one of Williams' fortes.
"We have to get back in transition, because we've been getting beat in the fast breaks," junior Erin Harrington said. "We will concentrate on getting back faster and see what we can do from there."
After spending the night in a Williamstown hotel, the team will trek up to Middlebury to take on the Panthers (16-4, 4-2). The team is led by three-point specialist Kristin Hanley, who as a junior eclipsed the 1000 career point mark earlier this season. Hanley scored 11 points in the final 3:36 of last year's contest, giving the Panthers a come from behind 69-67 victory over Tufts.
"They are tall, but their sets are standard and so forth," Savitz said of Middlebury. "They don't run a lot of things, they just run them well."
While Tufts' record may not compare favorable with the records of its two opponents this weekend, the team's losses have been close for the most part, and the team is peaking at the right time.
"We have been playing really well lately," Harrington said. "The next two weeks will be hard games but we have a good chance of winning two or three out of the four games."
"I think the players know what is at stake and the intensity will be there whether we are at home or on the road," Savitz said.
For the first time since the preseason, the team was able to have five consecutive practices with no game interruptions, thus giving it more time to hone the offensive and defensive systems.
