Jumbos in midst of important NESCAC stretch

The women's lacrosse team is in the middle of its most important stretch of games in its season. Tomorrow's game against Bates will be the fifth installment of nine consecutive NESCAC games, and with a conference record of 1-3 after yesterday's 14-5 loss to Middlebury, Tufts needs to beat the weaker teams like Bates (0-5 NESCAC) in order to secure a playoff spot.

Bates' record, however, does not make it a pushover. While the Bobcats have not won any NESCAC games, they have only lost one non-conference match, posting a 4-6 total record thus far in the season.

The Jumbos realize the strength of all the teams in the division, and are not taking tomorrow's game lightly.

"Despite the fact that Middlebury and Amherst and Williams are always on the stronger side [of NESCAC], the rest of the teams are all sort of 50-50," senior tri-captain Lauren Peach said. "We're not going into it thinking any games are going to be easy because there's a lot of intensity and pride among teams in our conference. It's anyone's game on anyone's day."

The Tufts team itself is a good example of this. Its 1-3 conference record may be misleading, considering the caliber of the games and the close scores. The team lost by one goal to Bowdoin (ranked 15th nationally), with the winning goal coming with only two seconds left on the clock. Four days later the Jumbos lost 11-8 to eighth ranked Williams.

The success the team has had to date is a result of a team effort.

"The team this year is not a star-oriented team; everybody on the field needs to play well in order for us to win," Peach said. "You can't shut our offense down by marking one person. Part of the reason why you see Dena Miller and Hagge scoring less this year than last year is because when other teams scout our team they say to cover them because they are going to be the people to score. Part of our success is from [saying] 'fine, you're covering Dena Miller, we'll pass it to someone else and they'll score.'"

Hagge concurred with Peach's sentiments.

"It's awesome, it's such a wonderful thing if I'm looking to score if I draw a defender and someone's open [I'll pass it to them and they'll score]," Hagge said. "I have almost as many assists as goals this season. It's fun to go out and play and not feel like I have to do everything myself."

Tomorrow's game against Bates will be the Jumbo's second home game of this season. The first match on March 27 against Trinity was during the final weekend of spring break, so tomorrow will feel more like the inaugural home game.

"[It's] more of a home opener for us. There were lots of parents but very few students [at the Trinity game]. We're hoping for a better crowd. There are always some nerves involved and we haven't had a home game in awhile," Peach said. "We want to do well for our fans. It's nice to be undefeated at home -- so far we are and we want to keep it that way."

In order to overcome the trouble they had with fundamentals in the Bowdoin and Williams games, the Jumbos will need to step up their intensity in order to put together a full game on Saturday.

"Any NESCAC team is a tough team," Hagge said. "[But] we're definitely a much more skilled, much more athletic team than [Bates is]. If we go out and play our best we can beat them. If we play our best we can beat anyone in the country."