Entering the 2007 season, a quiet momentum was gathering behind the field hockey team. Coach Tina McDavitt's first class of four-year players were now seniors, the abrupt end to the 2006 campaign had powered a hungry returning roster in the offseason, and nine freshmen joined a squad that over the past three seasons had arrived on the doorstep of national prominence.
The 2007 Jumbos crossed that threshold, putting together the breakout season that has been on the horizon since McDavitt's arrival. An early-season stumble disappeared in the spotlight of a strong October and the team finished with the best season in 34 years of Tufts field hockey - a season that surprised everyone but themselves.
"I've known that we were capable of a season like this," McDavitt said. "I felt like the girls were starting to understand that last year, and this year, they started to play like it ... Instead of hoping to win, we expected to win."
That championship attitude propelled the team from a shaky start to a 13-5 overall record and a second-place NESCAC finish. After hovering on the edge of the NESCAC's top tier, the Jumbos finally cracked into the league's elite with wins over two legs of the Bowdoin-Middlebury-Williams tripod.
"Last year we were trying to get up on the next step, and this year we finally got there," senior co-captain Ileana Caslleas-Katz said. "We talked about proving ourselves a lot this year. We knew we deserved respect, but we also knew that it wasn't going to come to us; we had to go out and get it."
The Jumbos did just that with marquee wins over No. 5 Middlebury and No. 17 Williams. That elusive respect finally came when Tufts cracked the national rankings for the first time in a decade, coming in at No. 20 on Oct. 2. It was only a start, though - "20 and rising" became both a rallying cry and a blueprint for the second half of the season. With an 8-1 October, the Jumbos had risen to No. 15 by season's end.
"This year was a huge breakthrough," junior Marlee Kutcher said. "I remember last year, checking the rankings every other Tuesday and being very frustrated that we never saw our name up there."
Despite two early-season losses to unranked Amherst and Wellesley, the national respect behind those votes earned the Jumbos an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament after an overtime loss to Middlebury in the NESCAC semifinals ended their run at a league title. They won their first-round game, 6-0, over New England College - another program first - before falling to No. 2 Salisbury last weekend in the regional semifinals, 2-0.
The team also set a slew of new records. The Jumbos scored 53 goals, blasting the old record of 42 set in 1982. Casellas-Katz is now the program's single-season leader in goals (18) and points (41). The team's 13 wins tied for the most in Tufts history, and its Sept. 15 win over Middlebury was the program's first in 22 years.
"[Records] are great, but it's the little things that make the big things possible," senior Jennie Williamson said. "The little battles we win, the extra minutes we put in ... the big picture is a mosaic of all the little things that we got right."
And the Jumbos had plenty of little things to work on. They spent the early going settling into a new field formation as McDavitt opted for a 3-2-3-2 setup rather than the traditional 3-3-3-1. The new look stacked the defense in front of freshman goalie Katie Hyder and tapped into the changed nature of the team's talent. While much of the Jumbos' game funneled through All-American center back Stacey Watkins (LA '07) in 2006, this year's skill was more evenly distributed, with several natural pairs teaming up.
"Our talent coming back was a little different this year, and I think we played to those strengths," Williamson said. "We didn't depend on one person. We had leading scorers, but there was always someone bringing the ball up from the back and someone making the passes."
The team returned eight starters, but much of its strength lay in its depth. The 22-player roster was the largest in McDavitt's four years and kept fresh legs on the field, allowed for full-field scrimmages in practice, and stacked the arsenal for future seasons. The team's four leading scorers were a senior (Casellas-Katz), a junior (Brittany Holiday), a sophomore (Amanda Russo) and a freshman (Tamara Brown), reflecting the skill in each class.
"It's great for [starters] to know that they can get a break and go in stronger and that we would still be strong," said freshman defender Jess Perkins, who started four games and came off the bench in 13 others. "So many people are coming back next year having played in big games and gotten that experience."
Perkins is primed for a starting spot next season as senior co-captain Katie Pagos leaves the backfield. Russo started 13 games at right wing after senior Corey Green went down with a torn ACL and scored five goals. Freshman Amanda Roberts put in good minutes at midfield, and Brown, who will spend the offseason recovering from her own ACL injury, finished with five goals in a promising rookie season.
The nine freshmen on the 2007 squad were the most in recorded memory. As skilled recruits continue to come in, they are entering a program that is nearly unrecognizable from its pre-2004 form. A new confidence characterized the 2007 Jumbos, and, according to coaches and players, made the difference between the "almost" aftertaste that lingered from the 2006 season and the exclamation point that now follows 2007.
"That attitude takes time to instill in a program," said assistant coach Dana Panzer (LA '05), whose senior year coincided with McDavitt's first season. "Individually, people can know that we're a good team, but to get to a point where everyone really believes it and freshmen know it the second they come in ... that takes time. I think it just all came together this year."
