The women's soccer team failed to score a goal in its second straight contest on Saturday, falling 3-0 to the Middlebury Panthers in its NESCAC road debut. The loss, Tufts' second straight, dropped the squad to an overall record of 0-2-1 (0-1-1, NESCAC) and into a tie for sixth place in the conference with Colby. The 0-2-1 start is the Jumbos' worst in over five seasons, and it was the first time in that same time span that the Jumbos went two straight games without scoring a goal.
"We definitely have some improvements to make," senior co-captain Sarah Gelb said. "We played inconsistently and we came out flat, but there were a few times that we connected really well. Overall, we're very disappointed but we definitely saw potential."
Middlebury senior tri-captain Brittany Cronin got things going early for the Panthers, scoring her NESCAC-leading fifth goal of the season with 19:39 elapsed in the first half. Cronin found an opening inside the 18-yard line and ripped a shot past Jumbos senior goalie Meg McCourt to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead.
For the second straight contest, the Jumbos suffered a let down after a goal was scored, and for the second straight game, the opposing team immediately capitalized. Just 41 seconds later, Cronin and the Panthers were back in the zone attacking the Jumbo net. A Middlebury cross set up junior Erin Pittenger, who sent a header across the center of the net to Cronin. Cronin controlled the ball and snuck a shot past McCourt for the 2-0 lead.
"It's definitely a mental thing," Gelb said. "We need to pick up the intensity if we get scored on and when we score so that we maintain possession, and we let down today."
The Panthers added a goal in the second half off of Tufts sophomore backup goalie Annie Ross, who replaced McCourt at halftime. They scored when senior tri-captain Mayo Fujii took a cross played to the near post and sent a hard shot past Ross to put the icing on the cake for the Panthers.
Despite working on defensive intensity all week, the Jumbos appeared to be off their game on the defensive side, allowing the Panther forwards to take advantage.
"We set up to play our own game, and we didn't alter our plan by any means to tailor to their game," McCourt said. "We tried to stay strong and get on their backs as soon as they got the ball, but we gave them too much space and were slow to pressure, allowing them to take advantage."
The Jumbos were also slowed by three major injuries that have been hampering them since the start of the season. Senior forward and last year's leading scorer Jen Baldwin sat out the game with an ankle injury that she sustained over the summer. Junior forward Sarah Callaghan, last year's second leading scorer, saw limited action for the first time this season after severely pulling her hamstring, also over the summer.
Junior midfielder Lydia Claudio is also still working on getting back to full strength after a stress fracture in her shin kept her out of the majority of the past two seasons.
Despite the injuries, the squad quickly dismissed the idea of them being excuses for the loss.
"It definitely slowed us down not having those three, but injuries plague every team and we just have to work through them," McCourt said.
The injuries to the squad's two main forwards has been the likely cause of the Jumbos offensive drought, having to put first year players Kim Harrington and Lauren Fedore into the starting lineup rather than easing them into college soccer.
"We really just haven't had that many opportunities. We haven't been dominating in the offensive zone," Gelb said. "It certainly helped to have Sarah back even though she played for a limited amount of time, and hopefully next week we'll get to work with all of our forwards at full strength."
The loss left the Jumbos and coach Martha Whiting looking at many aspects of the game to hone, including consistency, intensity, and transitioning. The Jumbos have struggled moving the ball from the defensive side of the field to the offensive side, and much of the time have resorted to just booting the ball out of the zone and giving up possession, rather than playing off the ball and creating offensive opportunities.
"We need to work on continuing to move together as a team, and getting the ball all the way to the opponent's zone," Gelb said. "We need to work on being more composed and maintaining possession instead of just forcing the ball forward."
The squad has no midweek game this week, allowing the players to rest and fully heal any lingering injuries they have sustained thus far. Tufts resumes its NESCAC season on Saturday at 1 p.m. when it heads to Western Mass. to face the Amherst Lord Jeffs, the squad that knocked Tufts out of the conference playoffs last season in penalty kicks.
