Coach of the Year
Carla Berube (women's basketball)
In her sixth year at the helm, coach Carla Berube guided the women's basketball team to its best-ever season and, in the process, put her rising program on the national map. The Jumbos strung together a program-record 26 wins during the 2007-08 campaign, making their first-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament and shocking the nation's preseason No. 1 team en route to a berth in the Elite Eight.
Along the way, Berube established herself as one of the region's premier coaches, sharing NESCAC Coach of the Year honors with Amherst's G.P. Gromacki and taking the Women's Basketball Coaches Association New England Coach of the Year award outright. In a sign of her growing prominence on the national level, Berube's top assistant, Kate Gluckman (LA '04), was hired in March to take over the women's basketball program at Grinnell College.
Berube is also steadily climbing into the Tufts record books. The UConn product picked up her 100th career coaching victory on March 1 and now sits just 35 wins shy of the program's all-time mark.
Athletes of the Year
Jake Gross, senior (men's squash)
Perhaps one of the best-kept secrets in Tufts athletics, Jake Gross quietly but consistently posted solid numbers during his four years at the top of the men's squash ladder, culminating in a career-best 17-2 stint in his senior season with the Jumbos.
The tri-captain graduates today with an impressive résumé. Not only did he arrive at Tufts his freshman year as one of the best junior players in the country, but he immediately took on a leadership role as the squad's No. 1 player and finished that year 11-4. The winning records continued for Gross, as he went 15-8 his sophomore season and 10-7 as a junior before peaking in his final season. The two losses this season were a five-set loss to Dartmouth junior No. 1 Andrew Boumford and a four-set loss to Bates senior Rickey Weisskopf, the nation's ninth-best player.
Under the senior's leadership, the Jumbos closed the season 10-9 with a No. 18 national ranking.
Unlike most Tufts sports teams, Gross regularly faced off against Div. I opponents, including players from Dartmouth and Brown, and finished this season ranked the No. 32 men's college squash player in the country after making his second appearance at the CSA Individual Championships, an improvement of 24 spots from his No. 56 individual ranking at the end of the 2006-2007 season.
While piling on the victories this year for the Jumbos, Gross shattered the program's all-time wins record and graduates with a 53-21 career mark. His efforts for the brown and blue earned the senior a spot on the NESCAC's inaugural all-conference squad.
Kendall Swett, senior (women's diving)
This season, senior Kendall Swett left no doubt as to who stands on top of the Div. III diving world, dominating all four of her postseason events in a fitting ending to her storied college career.
At the NESCAC Championships, Swett obliterated the field in the 3-meter dive, setting team, pool, conference and meet records with a score of 536.85. Her next-closest competitor, Middlebury senior Alanna Hanson, was nearly 100 points behind.
The performance continued a string of stellar showings for Swett in the 3-meter event. During the regular season, Swett bested two-time national champion Doria Holbrook of MIT in both of their head-to-head showdowns, the first coming at the MIT Invitational on Dec. 1 and the latter coming in a dual meet with the Engineers on Jan. 26.
But Swett wasn't done at NESCACs, scoring a convincing victory in the 1-meter dive. After transferring to Tufts from Lake Forest for her junior year, the Akron, Ohio native closed her career without a loss in any of her four conference championship events.
From there, Swett went on to compete in the NCAA Championships, which took place from March 13-15 at Miami University in Ohio. One year after finishing outside the top three in both diving events, Swett bounced back in historic fashion, earning her second 3-meter crown in the last three years and taking her first-ever 1-meter title. The sweep of both diving championships was the first by any participant since Wisconsin-Oshkosh's Rachel Heitkamp achieved the feat in 2004.
Swett graduates today having racked up six All-American nods and three national titles over her four-year career at Lake Forest and Tufts.
Rookies of the Year
Cara Cadigan, sophomore (women's soccer)
After missing her entire freshman year recovering from an ACL injury, sophomore midfielder and forward Cara Cadigan showed no signs of rust in 2007, putting together the most prolific offensive season in the 29-year history of the women's soccer team.
Starting all 18 of the squad's games, Cadigan tallied a program-record 19 goals, easily surpassing Lisa Raffin's (E '85) mark of 15 set in 1981. Ten of those scores were game-winning goals. She also added seven assists to finish the season with 45 points, far and away the most in the NESCAC.
The Nahant, Mass. native's historic season netted her a slew of postseason accolades, including a First Team All-NESCAC nod and a conference Rookie of the Year selection.
She earned Second Team All-Region honors from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America
and the New England Intercollegiate Soccer Association.
Cadigan's efforts propelled the Jumbos to their 13th consecutive winning season, one in which Tufts posted a 13-3-2 mark, finished second in the NESCAC and made its fifth-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.
D.J. Hessler, freshman (men's lacrosse)
So much for needing an adjustment period.
Freshman attackman D.J. Hessler stepped into the men's lacrosse team's lineup and grew into the squad's most potent offensive threat, tallying 23 goals and 23 assists for a team-leading 46 points. In the process, Hessler became the first freshman to pace the Jumbos in scoring since the program's all-time leading scorer, Bryan Griffin (LA '05), in 2002.
The Monkton, Md. native made his presence felt right from the get-go. With early-season injuries to junior Clem McNally and senior Connor Ginsberg thinning the team's depth at the attack position, Hessler filled the void, notching six points in each of his first two games, victories over Skidmore and Eastern Conn. By the end of the spring, the freshman had become a fixture of coach Mike Daly's lineup, earning a starting nod in the final eight games of the season.
Hessler was a paradigm of consistency this year, notching at least one point in all 15 of Tufts' games. The rest of the conference took notice, making Hessler one of just two first-years to earn an All-NESCAC honor. Hessler picked up a spot on the conference's Second Team.
Team of the Year
Softball
As the only Tufts team this year to clinch a conference title, the softball team played like champions throughout the regular season and the conference tourney. Compiling a 30-11 overall record, including a 11-1 NESCAC East campaign, the Jumbos continued their traditional offensive dominance, leading the conference in all the key offensive categories, including batting average (.355), slugging percentage (.485), runs (264), hits (378), RBI (229) and home runs (30).
Sophomore first baseman Christy Tinker captured NESCAC Player of the Year honors after finishing fourth in the conference in batting average (.422) and second in slugging (.716), coupled with stellar defensive play for a fielding percentage of .991. Meanwhile, junior designated player Cara Hovhanessian hit safely in 13 consecutive games in a stretch from April 18 to May 8.
Not to be outdone, Tufts' hurlers combined for a 2.48 ERA, good for second in the conference and a mere .04 points behind Bowdoin's ERA of 2.44. Freshman Izzie Santone (8-2) netted NESCAC Rookie of the Year for her efforts on the mound, posting a 2.00 ERA, the third-best in the conference. Meanwhile, junior Lauren Gelmetti led all NESCAC pitchers in opposing batting average with a .230 mark.
