Jumbos brace for Panthers

The women's soccer team will be challenged yet again this weekend as it travels to Middlebury on Saturday to face the Panthers in a crucial NESCAC match-up. The Jumbos, coming off a tough 2-0 loss against arch-rival Williams last Saturday, remain tied atop the standings with Williams and Amherst with an 8-3 overall record and a 5-2 league record. Tufts had not lost a game since Sept. 21, but is determined to put the loss behind them and focus on beating Middlebury.

"It's always hard to lose at home," senior co-captain Alle Sharlip said. "But we are still confident in our team's level of skill and ability to make it through the NESCAC. I think we're all excited for the game."

"We were extremely disappointed with the loss, because we clearly wanted a different result, but you can only dwell on it for so long," coach Martha Whiting said. "We have a really big task ahead of us on Saturday, and we have moved on and are focusing on Saturday's game."

The Panthers, who are 8-3-1 overall and 4-2-1 in the NESCAC, are currently tied for fourth place with Bowdoin. The Jumbos are 1-3 in their last four meetings against the Panthers.

"We are very excited to play Middlebury. We have a long history with them, going all the way back to my sophomore year in which we played them at least twice. We love to play them and get very excited to do so," senior co-captain Cara Glassanos said.

This year, however, the Jumbos have one of the best road records in the league at 4-1, whereas the Panthers are a meager 3-2-1 at home this season.

"We have been doing so well on the road this year. Sometimes it is really hard to ride on a bus for three or four hours and come out ready, but this year, we are doing just fine with it," Glassanos said.

As the season winds down, each game is of greater and greater importance.

If the season ended today, Williams would win the league, as it defeated Tufts last week. However, if Tufts defeats Middlebury and Amherst defeats Williams, then the Jumbos would be the heavy favorites to win the NESCAC with only two games to play _ which is why Tufts is placing such importance on this game.

"Right now, we are hoping to end the season number one so we can skip the first round of the tournament," Sharlip said. "However, this depends greatly on our game against Middlebury, and also on how well Amherst does against Williams."

Despite its importance, the team is not doing anything different in practice, but rather working on the same things they have been all season.

"At this point in the year, we're just fine tuning, we're not going to change anything, because we didn't play badly last week" Whiting said. "But we need to focus on finishing our shots on net, really playing quickly with only one or two touches, and not holding the ball for too long. We need to play smart defense, play as a team, and go into the game with a positive attitude with the confidence that we can win."

The Jumbos defense will probably face its toughest challenge of the season this Saturday against Middlebury's prolific offense, specifically from senior forwards Leah Cumsky-Whitlock and captain Meg Bonney. They form perhaps the most dangerous duo in the NESCAC. The two have combined for 25 goals this season, with Bonney scoring 16 times and Cumsky-Whitlock scoring 9 times. In comparison, the entire Tufts team has scored a total of 20 goals over the course of the season.

"We have so much potential this year and I truly believe that we can take this as far as we want, it is only a matter of heart. If we keep our hearts in it and going as strong as we are now, the passion of each player on this team will enable us to continue our way up," Glassanos said. "It is such an amazing feeling being part of such a successful team."