Weekend losses finish season

The 2003 campaign fizzled to an end for the field hockey team over the weekend, as the Jumbos lost 6-0 to the second seeded Bowdoin Polar Bears in the first round of the single-elimination NESCAC tournament on Sunday. This came after Tufts dropped its final regular season game to Colby 3-2 on Saturday in strokes.

Following Saturday's heartbreaking loss, which came in a second round of strokes after 100 minutes of play, the Jumbo mood was brightened with news of Trinity's loss. The Bantam's loss secured the Jumbos' first postseason appearance in three years.

The revelry could last only a night, however, as the postseason began and ended the next day for the Jumbos. Tufts was caught on the receiving end of the Polar Bears' six goal offensive explosion on Sunday in Maine.

Bowdoin scored early and often, putting the Jumbos into a 2-0 rut 17 minutes into the first half.

Polar Bear junior forward Colleen McDonald lit the spark for Bowdoin, finding the back of the net just 2:29 into the first half. The Bears would score twice more in the first frame, going up 3-0 at halftime on their way to the day's half dozen scores.

Bowdoin junior forward Marissa O'Neill had three assists and a goal in the match, giving her 49 points on the year and breaking Bowdoin's previous school record of 46. She finished the season with 16 goals, her final coming on a corner less than five minutes into the second half on Sunday.

Penalty corners were costly all day to the Jumbos, who found themselves on the wrong end of 12 Bowdoin corners, the first four of which the Polar Bears converted into goals.



"The corners were a big problem for us today," sophomore midfielder Lea Napolitano said. "They scored those first two goals off corners, and that put us down early."



The Polar Bears' fast-playing turf did not help the Jumbos' effort. Huskins Field in Medford is natural grass, and provides for a strikingly different game than the one played by Bowdoin, whose artificial surface increases ball speed and changes stick-work and passing patterns.

"We played on turf today, which was hard because we hadn't played on turf in almost a month," Napolitano said.

Fellow sophomore midfielder Erika Goodwin agreed.

"I know we could've played better on the turf, it's just hard to do with less than 24 hours to mentally prepare for it, let alone physically prepare for it," Goodwin said of Tufts' uncertainty regarding Sunday's playing location. "They're a turf team, they play well on this fast surface and they passed the ball well to beat us."

Had Tufts been victorious Saturday on Colby's sod, the Jumbos would have played on Sunday at Amherst on another natural surface.

The Jumbos were far closer to winning at Colby on Saturday, in a hard-fought and tough match.

"Our whole team played really well, both our teams were very evenly matched," senior co-captain Kelly Sarson said. "It was another heartbreaker, because once again we were playing so well."

Tufts jumped out to an early lead on Saturday, with junior forward Jennie Sachs flipping a shot past the goalie 17:30 into the game for the score on an assist by junior midfielder Dana Panzer.

Napolitano, the team's leading scorer, added the second Tufts goal less than three minutes later past the pads of Mule goalkeeper Jess Laniewski.

Panzer once again provided a solid defensive front for the Jumbos, after containing NESCAC scoring leader junior forward Wendy Bonner to just one goal in all of regulation and both overtime periods. It was the second consecutive game that the Jumbos called upon Panzer to defend against their opponents' star.

Senior goalkeeper Julie Jackson had another impressive day in front of the net, saving a season-high 15 shots.