There may be a little extra incentive when the women's soccer team rolls into Amherst tomorrow. Tufts will be facing the Lord Jeffs for the first time since the first round of the NESCAC playoffs last year, when Amherst defeated the Jumbos 4-3 on penalty kicks to end their season.
After suffering its second consecutive shutout loss last week Saturday, a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Middlebury, the Jumbos will be hungry to claim their first victory of the season. This will not be an easy task against an undefeated Amherst team ranked twelfth in the nation. Amherst is 1-0 in NESCAC play thanks to a 3-2 win over Trinity. Prior to last night's game at Springfield College its only other action came in a non-league tie against Eastern Connecticut.
Tufts is looking to energize its recently struggling offense, which has been held scoreless in its last five halves and has just one goal all year. The team should get a much-needed boost tomorrow, however, as injured forwards senior Jen Baldwin and junior Sarah Callaghan are expected to return to the lineup.
"Sarah got a little time against Middlebury," coach Martha Whiting said, "and Jen has been practicing all week, so it looks like both will be ready to play. We haven't had both of them healthy at the same time yet this season."
Baldwin, who had 20 points last year, and Callaghan, who had 14, are the two leading returning point-scorers on the squad.
Beyond remaining healthy, Callaghan noted that the offense also "needs to make other changes to create more scoring opportunities," such as working the ball up the field as a team instead of just delivering deep kicks. This is something Whiting thinks will come if they play smarter together.
"Tufts has a history of offensive droughts, but we'll get through it," she said.
A baffling trend that Tufts needs to buck is its tendency to lose intensity in the two minutes following a goal by either team. In each of its first three contests, a defensive letdown allowed the opponent to strike back quickly and either score again or match Tufts' goal. Whiting and her coaching staff think that this problem may be attributed to concentration being low as the team dwells on the previous goal.
"When we make a mistake and a team scores a goal, we need to put it away," she emphasized. "The problem may be that we are thinking too much about the goal that was just scored."
The Jumbos will have their hands full with Amherst's high-octane offense, which features All-American senior forward Ashley Harmeling, who was last year's NESCAC player of the year. However, an undisclosed injury has kept Harmeling out of the Lord Jeffs' first two matches and her status going into the weekend is questionable.
Amherst, though, has not missed a beat with senior Adrienne Showler stepping up in Harmeling's absence. In her first two games, Showler has tallied three of her team's four goals, earning her NESCAC player of the week honors. Despite this, Whiting does not plan to change the defense for individual players.
"We will shut a player down, but we won't mold our defense around just one player," Whiting said.
This weekend will call for contributions from everyone, especially from some of the new players because against a quality opponent like Amherst, getting consistent play from the whole squad will be a key.
"We have a couple players that will contribute right off the bat," Whiting mentioned, referring to her squad's four freshmen and one sophomore.
Following a week-long layoff, the game at Amherst will be Tufts' third consecutive on the road. The Jumbos return home on Tuesday to face Babson in non-league action, marking just their second game at Kraft Field this year.
The Lord Jeffs will be stiff competition for Tufts, but the Jumbos will have everyone healthy for the first time this year. With the team back at full strength, both coaches and players feel that things will begin to come together. Tufts feels it has waited long enough for its first victory of the year and would like nothing better than it to come at the hands of the team that knocked them from the playoffs last year.
"We just have to play Tufts soccer," Whiting said simply, "and good things will happen."
