The women's soccer team can finally breathe easy.
After struggling through their first four games, the Jumbos came away this weekend sporting their first winning streak of the year, defeating the Bates Bobcats 2-1 on Homecoming Saturday and the non-conference Worcester State Lancers 3-1
yesterday.
The two wins moved Tufts into a three way tie for fourth place in the NESCAC at 1-1-2 (2-2-2, overall), while Bates' loss relegated the Bobcats to sole possession of seventh place with a 4-2 record (1-2, NESCAC). The Bobcats started the week ranked fifth in New England.
"It was absolutely huge," coach Martha Whiting said. "Now the monkey is finally off our back and [we can] breathe a sigh of relief. We have a lot of confidence in ourselves because of this win."
Tufts was able to snap out of its offensive funk, notching a total of five goals over the weekend. The scores nearly tripled the Jumbos' previous goal output, giving them a total of seven on the season. In addition, the Jumbos won in front of a crowd of screaming parents, fans, and last year's four seniors, Becca Doigan, Jess Trombly, and former co-captains Abby Herzberg and Jess Lovitz.
"It was the greatest thing," Whiting said. "Not only did we get to win in front of the parents and alumni, we won for those four girls who were so dear to our team for the past four seasons. It just made it all the better for us."
The Jumbos began the game against Bates looking flat on both sides of the ball. However, senior goalkeeper Meg McCourt and her back four defenders were able to keep Bates out of the Tufts' net in the early going.
Despite being outhustled early, the Jumbo offense took advantage of a Bates mistake in the eighth minute when senior co-captain Sarah Gelb corralled an uncleared ball and ripped it past Bates' freshman keeper Kim Howieson to put Tufts up 1-0. The goal was Gelb's team-leading second of the
season.
For the first time this season, the Jumbos kept the intensity up for the 10 minutes after they scored the goal.
"It was a huge relief to get that first goal," senior co-captain Becky Greenstein said. "We stayed strong for the few minutes after, and the fact that we were able to remain as a cohesive unit was huge."
Despite going into halftime with a 1-0 lead, the Jumbos still started out slowly in the second half. Bates was quicker to the ball and seemed to be working more as a unit than Tufts was. But the Jumbos defense held and McCourt was able to stop any shots from skirting past her.
Strangely enough, a Bates injury pumped up the Jumbos early in the second frame. After a Bobcat player went down, Whiting called her team into the huddle and gave them a short pep talk.
"We were playing terribly through the first 10 minutes of the second half," Whiting said. "When that girl went down, I brought them in and said, 'there is no way we're going to lose this game because we didn't work hard enough', and that seemed to spark them."
From then on, Tufts dominated. The squad corrected everything that it had struggled with since the start of the season. The Jumbos moved well off the ball, transitioned from defense to offense, and communicated flawlessly in the midfield. Freshman center midfielder Martha Furtek and Greenstein led the way by setting the tone for the forwards and the backs.
In the 68th minute, Tufts' hustle paid off. On a defensive clear, senior Jen Baldwin controlled the ball on the right flank, 25 yards from the net. Baldwin eluded a defender and sent a perfect cross into the center of the 18 yard box to freshman Lauren Fedore, who knocked the ball down and, in what proved to be the gamewinner, sent a low, hard shot straight through Howieson's legs and into the back of the net for her first career collegiate goal.
"It felt amazing to get my first goal," Fedore said. "Jen played me a great ball, and I think it was really funny that it went through the goalie's legs."
The pumped-up Jumbos returned to Kraft field yesterday. Led by Greenstein and junior Lindsay Garmirian, they came flying out of the gate early and put constant pressure on Lancer sophomore goalie Kim Mass. But Mass held her own in the box and was able to stop Tufts' multiple attacks and keep the Jumbos off the scoreboard.
In the 28th minute, the Lancers got their first opportunity in the Tufts zone and took advantage. Freshman Tiffany Rotatori broke through the Tufts midfield and sent a flawless shot from the top of the box through two defenders, past McCourt and into the back of the net. It was the first recorded shot on the day for the Lancers, and it put them up 1-0.
"We were annoyed, and disgusted at ourselves for letting up that early goal," Whiting said.
However, the Jumbos ceased to give up, and did to the Lancers what had so often happened to them early in the season - they fought back. Within 12 minutes, at 40:08, junior Sarah Callaghan took a cross from freshman Anne Benedict and had one defender to beat to the goal. Callaghan quickly switched her feet as the defender went sprinting by, giving her all the time in the world to arch a perfect shot over Mass' head into the top left corner of the net to knot things up at one apiece going into
halftime.
In the second frame, the Jumbos finally started converting on their opportunities, adding goals by junior Lindsay Garmirian on an assist from Greenstein, and by senior Catherine Benedict off a corner kick from Furtek. The Jumbos outshot Worcester State 34-7.
"It feels awesome to be on a winning streak," Benedict said. "We had a rough start to the season, but we're really putting things together and playing like we know we can play. Our morale is up and our confidence is up, and we're going to be tough to beat."
Check out The Tufts Daily's 2004 Homecoming slideshow!
