There might not be a group of Jumbos that enjoyed its spring break more than the men's lacrosse team.
With a road victory over the nation's 18th-ranked Roanoke College Tuesday and a 9-6 win over NESCAC nemesis and No. 3 Wesleyan Saturday, Tufts has made its presence known in New England, jump-starting the 2007 campaign with a 4-0 record.
But the team isn't resting on its laurels just yet, downplaying its two recent victories' impact on national rankings and instead focusing on the team's league presence.
"We had two big wins this week, but the most important part for us is that we got a conference win," senior tri-captain Wiley Dornseif said.
The Jumbos traveled to Middletown, Conn. on Saturday afternoon to face third-ranked Wesleyan, a team that reached the NCAA semifinals last year. The Cardinals showed their quality early, outmuscling Tufts in the first period and scooping up 14 ground balls to the Jumbos' seven en route to taking a 3-2 advantage at the end of the first.
After senior tri-captain Mark Warner tied the game at two with his seventh goal of the year, Wesleyan clamped down defensively, holding the Jumbos scoreless for a stretch of more than 21 minutes. Wesleyan junior Alex Kaufman complemented the defensive effort with a goal and an assist, which handed his team a 4-2 halftime lead.
"We were just too tentative and too tight in the first half," senior midfielder Chris Connelly said. "We said at halftime, 'We just played the worst half of our season and we're only down by two goals, so we can get back in this.'"
Just a minute into the third period, Connelly snapped Tufts' cold streak with a pretty goal, receiving a pass from sophomore attack Clem McNally and whipping a behind-the-back shot past Wesleyan's All-NESCAC goalkeeper, senior Charlie Congleton.
"Guys weren't hanging their heads, because we knew [the scoreless half] was just one of those things," Dornseif said. "I think that the offense just settled in and really started playing well with each other."
The goal galvanized the previously anemic Jumbo offense. McNally netted two goals of his own shortly after Connelly's finish, giving Tufts a 5-4 - a lead it did not relinquish. Another goal in the third pushed the margin to 6-4, and the two teams traded scores until the final whistle.
Tufts dominated the third quarter defensively, as sophomore goalkeeper Matt Harrigan made five of his 11 saves on the day to keep the Cardinals off the scoreboard. As a team, the Jumbos won 11 ground balls to Wesleyan's six.
Senior midfielder Matt Lanuto played an excellent game, winning 12 of 18 face-offs and leading all players with 10 ground balls, while senior defenseman Dornseif also turned in a strong effort with nine grounders.
"Our defense played outstanding, just as they have all year," Connelly said. "And we dominated [Wesleyan] on face-offs and ground balls, which has been a point that we've really harped on."
With the win, the Jumbos snapped a four-game losing streak to the Cardinals, avenging three-straight single-goal defeats. While Wesleyan is a perennial NESCAC power, it also tends to be slow out of the gate; the defeat was the team's fourth-straight in as many conference openers.
After their March 16 match-up with Williams was postponed due to snow, the Jumbos traveled to Salem, Va. Tuesday, narrowly escaping with a 13-12 win against the Roanoke Maroons. Connelly converted a man-up opportunity off an assist from Warner - the team's fifth extra-man goal - with one minute, 19 seconds left in the game to give Tufts the victory. His score capped a four-goal second-half comeback for the Jumbos, who trailed 9-5 shortly into the third quarter.
In addition to his game-winner, Connelly added an unassisted first-period goal and three assists. McNally scored his sixth, seventh and eighth goals of the year in the contest, and Warner chipped in two assists and led the team with six ground balls. Despite winning only nine of 29 face-offs for the game, the Jumbos stepped up in the fourth quarter, taking five of seven.
