The field hockey team's best shot in years at a NESCAC Championship berth fell through with a 4-1 loss to Middlebury on Saturday. The Panthers had an answer on both ends of the field for a high-flying Tufts team, and earned a spot in the Sunday's championship game.
Although the Panthers fell to top-seeded Bowdoin yesterday in the finals, they were all but assured an at-large bid, having spent most of the season in the national top 10 and the past four weeks in the top five. The Jumbos were left at the mercy of the NCAA selection committee, hoping wins over Williams and Div. II Bentley, plus an 11-5 record - and 6-3 in the best conference in Div. III field hockey - are enough for an at-large bid. Pairings were not available at press time, but can be found today at www.ncaasports.com.
While the Panthers took 61 minutes to find the back of the cage in the teams' regular-season meeting, they got going early on Saturday. Two goals in the first 20 minutes set the Jumbos on the defensive against a top-tier team, a position from which they have not played with much success this season.
"It was a rough first 20 minutes," coach Tina McDavitt said. "Our touches were just off."
A few controversial officiating calls set the tone early. A goal by senior co-captain Stacey Watkins was called back after the ball hit a Tufts foot in the circle, and the Panthers' second goal, a rebound shot from junior Marnie Rowe, sparked some discussion on the field. The shot hit Tufts senior-captain Marilyn Duffy-Cabana's chest - a height violation in the case of a direct shot - but the officials determined that the ball had been tipped and counted the goal.
"Thing just didn't feel quite right," Duffy-Cabana said. "Little things, like that one goal that got called back or the [Middlebury] one they let in, kind of set the tone. Overall, it didn't feel like it was a 4-1 game."
The Jumbos recovered from a rocky start to slow the pace as halftime approached. A third Middlebury goal went in the books before the break, however, when Rowe notched her fourth point of the game, setting up junior Reid Berrien, who slid her team-leading 10th goal of the year past Duffy-Cabana.
The offensive statistics tell a very different story than the final score. Middlebury held a small 11-8 advantage in shots, but the Jumbos racked up 12 corners to the Panthers' two, and time of possession, while not a recorded stat, was relatively even. With a wealth of opportunities, the Tufts offense, which had scored multiple goals in each of its last five games, did everything but finish.
"It was kind of strange game; we matched up well against them, and the stats support that," sophomore Tess Jasinski said. "We had a lot of opportunities, and they were just able to capitalize and we weren't."
Middlebury set up in a man-to-man defense, a less common formation in the collegiate game, but one which exploited the Panthers' quickness and strong one-on-one tackling skills. Quick sideline drives had been a big part of the Jumbo offense this season, but the Panthers marked the Tufts forwards heavily and intercepted passes between the center and the wings.
"We knew their defense was strong and that we weren't just going to be able to go through it," Watkins said. "We talked about how needed to pull earlier or pop it over their sticks, and we did that sometimes, but not all the time."
The Panthers instead left some running room in the middle of the field, which Watkins and Jasinski utilized for most of the Jumbos' offensive drives.
"I was surprised at how open they were leaving me in the midfield," Jasinski said. "As soon as I got the ball, I felt like I had a lot of time to dribble. But once I was getting up in the circle, they were on me right away, laying down block tackles left and right."
The Jumbos' up-field momentum slammed into a tough Middlebury defense inside the 25 yard line. Senior co-captain Meghan McGillen finished with seven saves in goal, but several Jumbo shots never made it to the goalie's pads, landing instead on the sticks of the Panthers' backfield.
With shots in live play hard to come by, the Jumbos could have gotten a big offensive lift from their penalty corners, an asset for the team this year, especially in recent weeks. But the Panthers' defense swarmed the quick hit out to Watkins, and the inability to get off a direct shot had the Jumbos scrambling in the circle.
"They read our corner plays well," McDavitt said. "We work a lot around Stacey, and so they knew to get out on her fast. They'd done their homework."
Offensively, the Panthers spread the field wide and left cherry-pickers down by the Tufts goal. Because there is no offsides violation in field hockey, these outliers pulled the Jumbo defense back and gave the Panthers an advantage in the quick ball movement allowed by the Astroturf at Bowdoin's Ryan Field.
"They had a girl, sometimes two, way down on our end," Duffy-Cabana said. "They were an offensive-minded team, and especially on turf, one pass here, one run there and they were shooting."
The Jumbos had several opportunities down the stretch, out-shooting the Panthers 5-3 in the second half and racking up eight penalty corners. A shot from Jasinski went wide right, several more ended up in strong clears from McGillen and the Middlebury sweeper, and eventually, it became a race against the clock.
Desperate for some offense during the last 15 minutes of the game, McDavitt pulled freshman Emma Kozumbo at left back and went with a four-forward front line. It paid off, as Kelly connected for the only Tufts goal of the day, her team-leading (and third in the NESCAC) 11th of the season.
But it was too little, too late, and the Jumbos watched arguably their best season in years, in arguable the best conference in Div. III field hockey, come to an end.
"It was the same problem [as in the regular-season game]; we just broke down during a period and couldn't recover, and it cost us the game," Watkins said. "We weren't consistent enough, and they took advantage of it."
