In a season that has seen records fall and history made, the women's basketball team may soon be adding some hardware.
This weekend, the nationally ranked No. 15 Jumbos will have the chance to put an exclamation point on the winningest season in program history when they travel to Amherst with the chance to claim their first-ever conference championship. Second-seeded Tufts will take the court tomorrow afternoon with a semifinal showdown against No. 3 Wesleyan, and a win would send the team to Sunday's conference finals for the second consecutive season.
But the Jumbos aren't getting ahead of themselves.
"We're just focusing on Saturday, on Wesleyan, on what we need to do," said coach Carla Berube, who will be seeking her 100th career coaching victory tomorrow. "Yes, it's exciting to be in the NESCAC semifinals, to be one of the top four teams in the league, but we're thinking about the work that we need to do on Saturday to get to Sunday."
Last year, Tufts reached the conference final four on the strength of the program's first ever win in the NESCAC Tournament, a 65-50 win over No. 7 Middlebury in the quarterfinals. Facing off against a field that included four-time finalist Bates and national No. 1 Bowdoin, the comparably inexperienced Jumbos were a decided underdog.
But after putting together the school's first 20-win season and a 7-2 NESCAC record that tied for tops in the conference, Tufts enters this year's semifinals in a much different position, namely, that of a legitimate contender to win the NESCAC championship.
"Entering into the tournament last season, we hadn't had a playoff win since the conference tournament got started," sophomore guard Vanessa Miller said. "So last year, we were like, 'Okay let's get a tournament win. Let's do something this team hasn't done before.' But it's a completely different mentality this year. As a team, we have a lot of faith in our ability, and we truly believe we should be playing in that championship game if we play our kind of basketball."
The Jumbos are confident they can compete with the three other squads remaining in the tournament, as they scored double-digit wins over both Wesleyan and fourth-seeded Bowdoin during the regular season and lost to No. 1 Amherst by just two points when the teams met at Cousens Gym on Jan. 18.
"We were in every game against every team in the final four here, with Amherst being the one that got away from us," Berube said. "Also, I don't think there's an opponent like Bowdoin from last year, who was so difficult to knock off at their place having won as many championships as they have and having the experience that they had on their team. So it does feel a little bit different than last year. There should be a feeling of confidence on our part going in."
A major key for Tufts in tomorrow's game will be its ability to get the ball in the post, where the Jumbos thoroughly dominated Wesleyan in their 66-52 victory over the Cardinals on Feb. 2. Tufts received double-digit scoring efforts from senior co-captain Khalilah Ummah, junior forward Katie Tausanovitch and sophomore forward Julia Baily that afternoon and out-rebounded the Cardinals 53-37.
"That's our game," Berube said. "I don't think it matters who we're playing this weekend, that's our go-to: to get the ball in the post, to offensive rebound and to find our post players on the break. Along with that, we're going to play an inside-outside game and look to our guards to get some scoring, as well."
"Both K and Tausi have been such a huge part of why we've done so well this year," Miller added. "A lot of the teams we face have a good post player, but no team has the tandem that we have with those two. No team has two posts that can guard them or that can get around them. And so our goal, as always, is to just get it into the post as much as possible."
While Wesleyan has a low-post threat of its own in senior tri-captain Lucy Sprung - she has posted nine double-doubles in 25 games this season - the Jumbos should have a big advantage in the paint, particularly if Ummah can continue her recent performances. The Litchfield, Maine native is now playing the best basketball of her career, averaging 18 points, 13 rebounds and 2.75 blocks over her last four games.
Still, the Cardinals' offense will pose a formidable challenge for a Tufts defense that held opponents to a conference-best 52.2 points per game this season. Wesleyan boasts the NESCAC's leading scorer in junior guard Ali Fourney, who enters tomorrow's game averaging 16.5 points per game. Though she was held to just 5-of-17 shooting in the Cardinals' regular-season loss to the Jumbos, she still managed a game-high 19 points and has reached double figures in scoring in every game since Jan. 8.
"Fourney's a great player," Berube said. "I don't think she's someone that you can shut down; she's going to get her points. We just have to make her work and not let her have a lot of open looks."
With a victory, the Jumbos would meet the winner of the one-four semifinal matchup between host Amherst and seven-time defending champion Bowdoin in Sunday's conference championship game. At stake will be not only the NESCAC crown, but also the accompanying automatic bid to the Div. III NCAA Tournament.
Even if the Jumbos come up short of the conference title, they have a tremendous shot at landing a Pool C at-large bid, given the team's 22-2 record against the nation's seventh-toughest schedule. But after a NESCAC finals appearance wasn't enough to sway the selection committee last season, the Jumbos - who have never before appeared in the NCAA Tournament - aren't taking anything for granted.
"I don't think any of us will forget what it felt like, to be waiting to hear if we got that bid and then finding out we didn't," Miller said. "Avoiding that feeling is a huge drive for those of us who were here last year. So in that sense, it'd be huge if we get that guaranteed bid."
