Women's lacrosse dominates Babson

Despite a muddy Kraft Field and subfreezing temperatures, the women's lacrosse team dominated the Babson College Beavers in a 17-5 victory yesterday, ending a two game losing streak. With the win, Tufts improved to 4-2 overall on the season, but remains winless in the conference with an 0-2 NESCAC mark.

"It was absolutely critical to come out and play well for us, and it was an added benefit to win," coach Carol Rappoli said. "If we hadn't played well, I'm not sure what would have happened for the rest of the season. Thank god that we don't have to worry about that, though."

Junior Willow Hagge, sophomore Megan Doughty, and freshman Meredith Harris, who each tallied three goals, anchored a strong Tufts attack that saw eight different girls find the back of the net, and ten record at least one point.

"Getting this win gives me hope," senior co-captain Ari Kristan said. "We needed this win so much, it probably will be the turning point of our season. Today we played our best game of the season, and now we have momentum going into the weekend against Williams."

Determined to end their two game losing streak, the Jumbos came out firing to start the game. Just 27 seconds in, freshman Dena Miller eluded her defender and sent a pass to a wide open Hagge on the left side of the field, who put a shot into the back of the net, giving Tufts a 1-0 lead.

Hagge connected again less than 90 seconds later on a centering flick from classmate Maureen Mahon, giving the Jumbos a quick two goal lead.

The Jumbos continually pressed the Babson defense for the first four minutes of the game, and when the Beavers finally broke past the midfield mark with 26:10 left in the half, sophomore Lauren Herman quickly stole the ball back for Tufts and reset the offense.

The squad increased its lead just over four minutes later, as Miller capitalized on a free position with 21:33 remaining in the half to give Tufts a 3-0 lead.

The offense continued to dissect the porous Beavers' defense. Just under three minutes later, Harris, at the top of the key, found cutting junior Kristen Saldarelli, who tallied her first goal of the game to give Tufts a 4-0 advantage.

Despite its four goal lead, Tufts refused to let up its intensity level, and continued to pass the ball smoothly and to make hard cuts towards the goal. Due to strong offensive pressure, the Tufts defense was virtually unchallenged, with Kristan still yet to face a shot in goal.

With 16:08 left in the half, the Jumbos struck again, as Saldarelli found a cutting Doughty, who sliced through two defenders before notching her eighth goal of the season, giving the them a commanding 5-0 lead.

With 13:17 remaining in the half, Beavers' freshman April Doten finally broke through the Tufts last line of defense and was awarded a free position after being fouled in front of the net. Doten fired a shot into the top left corner of the net just past a lunging Kristan to put Babson on the scoreboard, reducing Tufts' lead to 5-1.

Undeterred by the defensive miscue, the Jumbos came back just 61 seconds later, with yet another score when sophomore Sarah Lipson scored on a free possession to put the Jumbos back on top by five.

As the half rolled on, the Jumbo cutters continued to move freely in the Babson zone, getting passes in front of the net and constantly pressuring the Beavers goalie. Tufts would score three more times before the end of the half, including a free position goal by Miller as the buzzer sounded, giving Tufts a 9-2 lead.

Rappoli, Kristan, assistant coach Colette Gaudet and senior Kathy Kenny had some strong words for their team at halftime.

"We've talked about our second half intensity all week, ever since the Trinity game and especially after the Bowdoin game," Kristan said. "The four of us, and even other upperclassmen, stressed the importance of keeping up the intensity this half, and playing an even better half than we just played."

The words of wisdom worked because the second half featured much of the same dominance for Tufts. Unlike the past two games where the Jumbos looked and played flat in the second frame, Tufts came out with a high intensity and was able to put the Beavers away for good. After a Babson goal just 29 seconds into the half, Harris got past her defender and rifled a shot into the back of the net to push the lead back up to seven.

Five minutes later, Mahon found Hagge again for another goal, her team leading 18th of the season to give Tufts an imposing eight goal advantage.

In the final 20 minutes of the game, the Jumbos held Babson to just one goal, while adding six more of their own, including a five goal run quelled by Babson freshman Julie Fitzgibbons with 4:11 left in the contest.

Miller with the help of fellow freshman Ryan Killeen put the icing on the cake, as Miller sent a pass from behind the net to Killeen, who proceeded to fire a windmill shot top shelf to give Tufts a 17-5 lead.

"It's amazing to watch our freshmen step it up on attack," Kristan said. "The transition from high school to college lacrosse is huge, and they've started to make that transition, and as they keep making it, they are just going to get more and more impressive."

Kristan tallied nine saves on the day en route to her fourth victory on the season, while sophomore Maureen Wiley came on in relief and held her own, racking up four saves and only allowing one goal in the final nine minutes of the contest.

"It was really important to finish the game with just as much intensity, if not more, as at the start," Hagge said. "Our passing was really strong, and we communicated really well. We also transitioned the ball from defense to offense extremely well, which is very motivating because that is something we have been working on in practice for the entire season."

The Jumbos look to take their momentum into upcoming contests against Williams on Saturday and reigning national champion Middlebury on Tuesday.