The women's lacrosse team ended its season somewhat prematurely when it failed to qualify for the NESCAC playoffs, despite winning its last three games of the season, including a dramatic 11-10 overtime victory over Connecticut College, on April 27, in what turned out to be Tufts' final contest of the year. The three game winning streak was a positive end to a season that was disappointing at times.
After losing its top three scorers from last season, the team knew it would be a difficult task to repeat the successes of past seasons. Despite this, the Jumbos began the year with high goals and expectations, as the addition of sophomore transfer student Willow Hagge added a new scoring threat in the place of last year's top scorer Jen Gregorian.
Two weeks into the season, however, the team experienced a serious setback in terms of these goals when senior co-captain Christina Orf suffered a torn ACL and two other top players experienced ankle injuries.
"I think we expected to be one of the best teams in the conference, and try and win the conference," sophomore Lauren Peach said. "But two weeks into the season, one of our best players tears her ACL, then two of our starters hurt their ankles, so our priorities changed pretty quickly."
Despite these setbacks, the team opened up the season on a promising note on its annual spring training trip, securing three convincing wins in non-conference competition while jumping out to an early 3-0 record. Hagge proved to be a valuable asset early on, netting three goals in her first game as a Jumbo, and finished the trip with seven goals and four assists.
Upon returning from the trip, the team began its NESCAC schedule with a contest against then undefeated Trinity on March 30. Though the Jumbos jumped on top of the Bantams a mere 43 seconds into the game, they fell in the contest by a score of 9-5.
Just three days later, Tufts again faced another undefeated team, the Bowdoin Polar Bears. The two teams entered the final two minutes of play with the score knotted at ten, but it was Bowdoin who came out on the winning end. Senior captain Beth Sherman found the back of the net just 1:22 remaining to secure the 11-10 win. The loss dropped the Jumbos to 0-2 in conference play.
After a non-conference game against Babson on April 4, which the Jumbos dominated in a 15-5 victory, the team headed back into NESCAC territory - a stretch of games against three of the top four teams in the conference.
Tufts lost all three of these games, including a 12-5 thumping at the hand of eventual NESCAC champion Middlebury. The defeats left the Jumbos with an 0-5 conference record, and almost out of the playoff picture entirely.
"We sort of had our lulls, and the NESCAC conference is the best DIII conference in the country," Peach said. "You just can't really make that many mistakes."
But the Jumbos fought back and registered 7-5 wins over both Wesleyan on April 18 and Bates on April 20, as well as the thriller over Connecticut College which put them back in the postseason hunt. Results from other games did not work out in the Jumbos' favor, however, and the team missed the postseason.
"I'm disappointed with our final record, but only because it doesn't adequately reflect how good our team really is," Peach said. "We work really hard and we have a lot of talent, we just didn't necessarily play well for an entire 60 minute game."
Despite several tough setbacks throughout the season, the team was able to look at the positive side of things.
"I think we've only grown stronger because of it, and our team is really close now," Peach said. "The last three games of the season, we finally pulled together and played like we had wanted to all along- as a team."
Hagge led the team offensively this season with 34 points in the form of 26 goals and eight assists. She will be an important part of a next year's team after the departure of three seniors - Samantha Snitow and co-captains Orf and Liz Horrowitz. These three will be hard to replace, as each has been a substantial part of the team for the last four years.
"Our seniors were incredible leaders this year," Peach said. "It's going to be hard to fill the void of Samantha Snitow as a leader on defense and Liz Horowitz as a leader on attack. But our team has already learned to deal with not having Christina on the field, and it'll be a question of juniors and seniors stepping up to take their places."
Other key members of next year's squad include juniors Ari Kristan and Kathy Kenney, who the team recently voted to be next season's co-captains. Kristan, the team's goalie for the past three years, finished fifth in the NESCAC in goalkeeping, accumulating an 8.15 goals against average as well as a .564 save percentage.
Kenney, a strong defensive player, was Tufts' only representative on this year's All-NESCAC teams, as she was selected to the second team. Teammates are quick to praise Kenney for her dedication and hard work.
"She will be a great leader and captain," Peach said. "Everyone on the team respects her for her intensity on the field. She brings the entire level of the playing of our team up another level."
A strong crew of underclassmen provides a great deal of optimism for next year's team. Despite the disappointing final result of this year's campaign, the overwhelming feeling on the team is one of anticipation for next season.
"We're a young team, so I'm not so disappointed," Peach said. "I'm just excited for next season."
