Jumbos play best game of the year

The women's soccer team went into this weekend's NESCAC Tournament with a lot of unfinished business to take care of.

The Jumbos knew coming in that they would face at least one team that had already beaten them (Connecticut College), and one of two (Bowdoin or Williams) ranked in the top 15 in the nation. They knew they would need at least one win to have any shot at an NCAA berth, and two to guarantee it.

Hosts by virtue of a long set of tie-breakers, Tufts came in determined to prove it belonged in that number-one spot, and sought revenge for its two conference losses. With strong games against two of the NESCAC's toughest teams, they did just that, and came away champions.

First they beat Conn, a team that handed the Jumbos their first conference loss back in September. Then they beat Williams, the perennial powerhouse who hadn't allowed a goal in almost a month, and who had knocked the Jumbos off 2-0 on Oct. 19, their only other NESCAC loss. And, more importantly, they won the conference title, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, becoming the only NESCAC team to make it this year.

As both senior captains Alle Sharlip and Cara Glassanos put it, "We beat them when it counted."

The Jumbos knew they would get a second shot at Conn, who advanced to the semis by beating Amherst last Sunday. After beating the Camels 2-1 in double overtime Saturday, they watched and waited as Williams and Bowdoin battled it out in the other semi-final. The players had mixed feelings about which team they would prefer to face, but all agreed that they would welcome a shot to redeem themselves against the Ephs.

"Watching Bowdoin and Williams play, I knew that Williams was the better team, but just the adrenaline that you can build up to a team that you've already lost to," Glassanos said. "We definitely wanted another chance at them."

The Ephs pushed past the Polar Bears in penalty kicks, setting up a Tufts-Williams final Sunday afternoon on Kraft Field.

Against Williams, the Jumbos played what coach Martha Whiting described as perhaps the best game she had seen her team play since the 2000 squad's run to the NCAA Championship game. Tufts was clicking on both offense and defense, dominating the flow of the game from back to front and, for a change, finally getting the shots to fall, building up a big lead early on and never looking back.

It was the offense that would shine first, lighting it up with three scores in the first half, an improbable feat considering the strength of the Eph defense. Williams entered the game boasting the stingiest defense in the conference, allowing just eight goals in 15 games.

The last time Williams had given up a goal was Oct. 12. The last time Lindsey Starner, the Ephs' starting goalkeeper, had let one get by her was Sept. 28. And the last time Williams had given up more than two goals in one game? Sept. 30, 1995.

But Tufts snapped all three streaks, as the Jumbos exploded out of the gates, undeterred by their opponent's impressive statistics. The team scored early and often, putting in shots off a corner, a penalty kick, and a breakaway to open up a commanding lead from which the Ephs could not recover.

In fact, the offense was clicking all weekend, as Jumbos scored five goals in the two games, breaking out of a four-week slump in which they had connected just three times despite taking 116 shots. Sophomore forward Jen Baldwin led the charge, scoring three of the goals, two on penalty kicks, including the game-winner against Conn.

"Anyone who watches us knows that we have the capability to score goals," Whiting said. "It's just today somehow we were on, and we found the back of the net. We did it when we needed it."

But lost in the flurry of scoring outbursts was the outstanding play of Tufts' defense, which not only held off a strong Williams attack in the second half, but also served as the starting point for Jumbo offense, keeping the ball pinned in Eph territory and distributing it up the field. The defense has been the driving force behind what is now a five-game unbeaten streak, allowing just one score over that stretch (Conn's goal, on a breakaway), a testament to the skill and toughness of the Jumbo defensive backs.

"I couldn't ask for more from my defenders," Glassanos said. "They're absolutely amazing. They give everything they've got, and no one gets by them."

"They're just a tough bunch, our defenders," Whiting added. "And we've got a good balance of speed, toughness, and skills. When we put all that together, it's really hard to get through us."

The defense only got better when challenged, fighting off attack after attack as the clock ticked down Sunday and Williams pushed more players forward in an effort to get something on the board.

And, in fact, one thing that Tufts has done consistently all year, for better or worse, has been to play to the level of its opponents. During the regular season, the Jumbos came away with hard-fought wins on the road against Amherst and Bowdoin, but just squeezed out victories over weaker teams like Brandeis, Wesleyan, Simmons, and Colby.

The team continued this trend in the tournament, this time in a positive fashion, coming out very strong against two tough, talented teams.

"It's hard to get ready mentally for a team that is supposed to be awful. It's hard to get up for that," Glassanos said. "It's hard to go in, and have that nervous feeling in your stomach, like we could lose this game. Which is why playing Conn and Williams was so amazing, because we had lost to both of them. Everyone was ready and came out so hard and so fast, and I don't think they were expecting that much of a fight from us."

As Tufts moves into NCAAs, the competition will keep getting better. And so, too, the Jumbos hope, will their level of play, as they look to keep their season alive in the single-elimination tournament.

"For some reason we do get up for [tougher teams] more," Whiting said. "And now every team that we play is going to be like that, so maybe that's a good omen for us. When you know that every game could be your last, there's an amazing sense of urgency for you to get out there and give it all you've got."

With the tournament won and losses to Conn and Williams avenged, Tufts has now posted wins over all but one team in the NESCAC, one of the toughest conferences in the country. The only blemish left is a scoreless tie against Middlebury, also the only NESCAC team the Jumbos did not beat in 2000 before making a run to the NCAA Championship game.

"It's so exciting. There's really nothing more we could ask for," Glassanos said. "From here on in, it's one game at a time. I just can't even put it into words what it feels like. I live for this game, and having the honor of being captain of such an amazing team is wonderful, and I love them. We're going to take it to the end, because we're not ready to say goodbye to each other yet."