The 2006 season set the bar high for the field hockey program. The team recorded its most wins since 1998 and came the closest to a NESCAC title that it has in the league's history.
With nine freshmen, a new field setup and the entrenchment of fourth-year coach Tina McDavitt's system among its roster, the squad enters the 2007 season with the goal of clearing it.
"We've been talking a lot about our team goals and we're definitely proud of our success from last year," senior co-captain Ileana Casellas-Katz said. "We have a lot of confidence in the way we played last year; we want to maintain that level of play and improve on it."
Apart from the nine new faces on the roster - the largest freshman class in at least a decade - Tufts will be sporting a new setup on the field. A 3-2-3-2 system will capitalize on the team's fitness and provide extra support for rookie goalie Katie Hyder.
Last season, the Jumbos used a more traditional 3-3-3-1 set. With the new system, the three-forward line has the same role as before, but with an extra defender in front of the cage, the second line will be able to push up further without leaving the defense shorthanded.
"This is a great system for the team," Casellas-Katz said. "We have a really fit team and the way the system is made, there will be a lot of running and pushing up on defense."
The setup creates a tighter weave on defense, which is where the team was hardest hit by losses. Goalkeeper Marilyn Duffy-Cabana and All-American center back Stacey Watkins, the team's 2006 co-captains, both graduated in May after anchoring one of the best defenses in the league last season.
A pair of sweepers, likely junior Marlee Kutcher and sophomore Emma Kozumbo to start, will help protect Hyder in goal.
The rookie from Winston-Salem, N.C. is the only goaltender listed on the team's roster. If Sunday's play-day against Trinity, Vassar and Smith was any indication, she is shouldering the load well.
"[Hyder] came in with a great attitude and has been working really hard," Casellas-Katz said. "She's been working on becoming more vocal, which is obviously hard as a freshman, but so far, she's been doing a great job communicating."
For a squad that shocked Williams and soundly defeated a pesky Wesleyan team that had given it trouble in the past, Tufts hopes this new set will bring even better results this fall. So far, the team has adjusted quickly.
"We're getting everyone quickly on the same page," McDavitt said. "With nine new players, we're playing a new defensive system. We have a freshman goalie this year and with this system, we'll have two solid defenders back there helping her out."
Although Hyder and the rest of her class will have to make the hurdle from high school to collegiate play, they have exhibited a greater level of poise and experience than in previous years.
"They all have really good energy," McDavitt said. "Nowadays more players are starting to play earlier and have more field hockey experience and more experience playing on turf. They're playing in the offseason and coming in with better fundamentals and basics."
The freshmen will have little time to settle into their new roles before their first major test of the season. After a season and league opener against Colby on Saturday, the Jumbos play Wellesley and Middlebury, the latter ranked No. 7 in the Div. III preseason poll.
The team learned last year how important early games can be. A pair of September losses to Wellesley and Middlebury - by a total of three goals - hurt the Jumbos down the stretch, when they narrowly missed out on an NCAA Tournament bid. The extra loss put the team at 11-5, and the league's second at-large bid went to Williams.
"Last year, we didn't realize how those games would affect our postseason," senior co-captain Katie Pagos said. "Now we realize how important it is to win these games. We have to act as if the games are as important as the last NESCAC games of season."
McDavitt is also looking to the end of the line. Non-league games against weak Endicott, Gordon and Babson programs hurt the Jumbos' strength-of-schedule ranking last year, another criterion used by the selection committee. One of the team's biggest wins, a 2-1 decision over nationally ranked Div. II Bentley, had no effect on Tufts' ranking because the Falcons are not a Div. III team.
This year, McDavitt dropped Bentley in favor of UMass-Dartmouth, which plays in Div. III.
"When it went to the committee [last year], our record only showed 10-5," McDavitt said. "Bentley is an amazing team and that's great competition, but it hurt us last year."
