Michelle Kelly, Field Hockey
Expectations are a funny thing.
Entering the 2007 season, much was expected of sophomore Michelle Kelly, who earned 2006 NESCAC Rookie of the Year honors after exploding for a team-leading 11 goals last year. The Downingtown, Pa. native earned a starting spot halfway through her freshman campaign and finished with the second-most goals ever for a Tufts rookie.
Kelly started off the '07 season in a more supporting role. At left wing, the speedster was a set-up force in the Jumbos' offense, creating breakaways down the line with a crafty poke-and-run move and crashing the post on penalty corners and free hits. Through Oct. 6, however, Kelly had scored only two goals. But goal number three, despite coming in a 2-1 conference loss, was a marquee one. She was the first and, until this Saturday's semifinal matchup, the only player to score on nationally ranked No. 1 Bowdoin. Kelly more than doubled her goal total over the course of the next month, scoring against Trinity on Oct. 13 and providing the only offense in the team's 1-0 win over Wesleyan in an elimination game in the first round of the NESCAC Tournament.
This Saturday, however, Kelly elevated her game - and her goal total - with a clutch performance in the team's 4-3 semifinal loss to Middlebury. Two tip-in goals from the sophomore kept the Jumbos in the game, the first evening the score a one and the second giving Tufts its first and only lead of the day.
With the pair of goals, Kelly's season total moved to seven, good for third on the team. But it is the quality and timeliness of Kelly's goals, rather than the volume, that make her an indispensable offensive weapon. Four of her seven goals have been either game-winners or crucial equalizers in tough losses.
Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot, Cross Country
After a solid performance at last weekend's NESCAC Championships, freshman Jerzy Eisenberg-Guyot delivered again on Saturday, leading the Jumbos in scoring at this weekend's ECAC Div. III Championships to land the 36th spot individually. Eisenberg-Guyot finished the 8,000-meter course in 27:38, far surpassing his mark from NESCACs. In that race, run on a much wetter and muddier version of Williams' home course, Eisenberg-Guyot clocked a 28:33 finish, good for 81st place, a time he bettered by nearly a full minute this week.
The Brookline native's finishes in his past two races marked a dramatic improvement from Oct. 13's Plansky Invitational, also at Williams, where Eisenberg-Guyot finished eighth for the Jumbo squad, running a 20:52 for the 6k route that put him in 63rd place overall.
This Saturday Eisenberg-Guyot, along with classmate Jeff Ragazzini who finished not far behind in 48th, led the Jumbos to a 10th-place team finish in a field of 37 schools. Tufts placed behind conference rivals Williams, Amherst and Middlebury, who took first, sixth and seventh places respectively. The host Ephs ran away with the title, tallying only 45 points on the day compared with the Jumbos' 286.
