Last season, the Bowdoin Polar Bears came into Medford and shut the Jumbos out on their own turf on Homecoming Weekend.
The Jumbos look to exact a little revenge on the Polar Bears tomorrow in Brunswick, ME., when the 2-3-2 Jumbos take on the 5-3-1 Bears in a matchup of fourth place NESCAC squads.
The NESCAC standings were all shaken up last weekend when Bowdoin tied Middlebury, Amherst tied Bates, and Wesleyan upset Conn College, opening the door for the Jumbos to shoot into second place in the conference with a win and a little help.
Tufts will look to its seniors for motivation as the squad looks to bounce back from a 3-0 midweek loss to the Brandeis Judges, a game where the Jumbos surrendered a goal 44 seconds into the contest and never bounced back.
"We had a really good practice yesterday," senior goalie Meg McCourt said. "The focus was a lot of intensity to get ready for Saturday. Our attitude going into the game has just been to focus on all the positives and leave behind all the negatives."
On offense, the squad will be paced by senior Jen Baldwin and newly converted forward junior Ariel Samuelson. Baldwin has scored just one goal and tallied one assist in the Jumbos' six games, as compared to last year when she had already tallied three goals and two assists at the six-game mark.
Samuelson, who played fullback for the past two seasons, is still looking for her first career collegiate goal. The Jumbos will have a lot of support off the bench from juniors Lydia Claudio and Sarah Callaghan and first-years Lauren Fedore and Kim Harrington, both of whom look to continue the strong NESCAC performances they put on last weekend against the Bates Bobcats.
Perhaps the strongest part of the Jumbo game has been its defense, which once again will be led by senior center fullback Catherine Benedict. Benedict has been a strong force in the backfield all season, and along with classmate Alina Schmidt, sophomore Jen Fratto, and freshman Joelle Emery, the Jumbos look to hold the Bowdoin offense scoreless for the 90 minute contest.
The aforementioned offense for the Bears will be led by freshman forward Ann Zeigler, who has scored four goals and tallied an assist to lead the Bears with nine points. Bowdoin's deep offense has seen eight different girls find the back of the net so far this season, including five girls with two or more goals in nine games.
On defense, the Polar Bears will be paced by senior co-captain Kendall Cox and classmate keeper Anna Shapell. Cox and Shapell have been the leaders of a defense that has allowed a mere 1.06 goals a game, with just a .112 shot percentage and 10 shots a game allowed.
"Last weekend broke the ice for us, and it showed us what we're capable of doing," McCourt said. "It is my hope we'll continue on that streak, and we know we're capable of getting it done so I think we'll do it."
Interestingly enough, however, it could be advantageous for the Jumbos to travel up to Brunswick rather than playing in Medford. The Bears have been a bland 1-1-1 at home, while they have been a dominant 4-2 when heading into other teams' domains.
The Jumbos won't have much time to dwell on the result of Saturday's game, as the squad faces its first mid-week conference matchup on Tuesday afternoon against the Wesleyan Cardinals at home at 4 p.m. While the Cardinals are just a lowly 1-3 in the NESCAC this year and 2-5 overall, they have certainly shown signs of life this season with a 2-1 upset of Conn College, and are not a team the Jumbos can take lightly.
"We're definitely focusing on one game at a time, but we know we have six regular season games left so we know we have to put them away," McCourt said. "We definitely are starting to feel a sense of urgency now having so few games left."
