Womens Soccer | Owl offense keen as it swoops past injury-riddled Jumbos, 5-4

    After the women's soccer team's six-game shutout winning streak came to a close with a loss to Amherst on Oct. 4, the Jumbos were hoping they could start it up again when they recorded a 1-0 victory at Brandeis three days later.
    Now, the Jumbos are on another streak — but this one, a two-game losing slide, isn't exactly what they had in mind.
    After a handful of injuries to key players over the course of the last week left the Jumbo roster tattered for Tuesday's matchup with the non-conference Keene State Owls, Tufts suffered its third loss of the season, 5-4, after a pair of early second-half goals put Keene State ahead for good.
    Tufts was playing short-handed, as four players were sidelined for the contest. Among them were the reigning NESCAC Rookie of the Year, junior tri-captain Cara Cadigan, who will miss the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, and starting junior goalkeeper Kate Minnehan, whose return this year is questionable after she fractured her hand in Saturday's showdown with Middlebury.
    Sophomore goalkeeper Hannah Jacobs started against Keene State after sustaining a rib injury shortly after Minnehan's exit on Saturday, but she was forced to leave the game after in the 36th minute.
    "She was still hurting," senior tri-captain Maya Shoham said. "She wasn't playing to her potential, so instead of making it worse, she came out so that hopefully she can go on Saturday."
    The Jumbos, however, have managed to look past the obvious setbacks, and they arrived in Keene, N.H. Tuesday looking for the victory.
    "Everyone is really positive," junior Ali Maxwell said. "Even though we've had injuries, the people that are healthy have really stepped up. We're still the same team, and we're still going out there trying to win."
    But beyond the final score, the game was a promising one for the Jumbos, who posted their highest offensive output of the season and outshot the Owls 25-11 despite the absence of Cadigan, who led the squad last year with a school record-breaking 19 goals.
    "It's always a reinforcement that we can score without Cara," junior tri-captain Whitney Hardy said. "Some of the freshmen are starting to really step up. It's really nice to feel like we can score goals and have a lot of shots."
    "It was nice to finally have everything clicking and to be able to move the ball and see some results score-wise," Maxwell said. "That was definitely a really positive aspect of the game."
    Tufts' offensive success came in large part from the performance of freshman Jamie Love-Nichols, who scored two first-half goals to give her a team-high four on the season. Love-Nichols combined with Hardy, who chipped in with a tally at the 29:48 mark on a feed from sophomore Audrey Almy, to put the Jumbos up 3-1.
    "[Love-Nichols] is really playing well," Shoham said. "She's possessing the ball and taking quick shots. She has a rocket for a shot, and she's taking shots from all over and making them count."
    But the Owls came right back, countering with two quick goals of their own to tie the score at three apiece going into the half. Senior midfielder Michelle Boland shot her second goal of the game by Jacobs, who left the game just two minutes later. She was replaced by senior Alissa Brandon, who was called up from the JV squad after Saturday's injuries.
    Despite a solid effort from Brandon, Owls freshman Sam Saltalamaccia beat her just three minutes later for Keene State's third goal.
    But ultimately it was the two second-half scores for the Owls — the first from freshman Bridget Hennessey and the second from Boland to give her a hat trick — that did the Jumbos in.
    "They didn't really have many shots, but both the goals they scored in the second half came pretty early," Hardy said. "We didn't get pressure on early enough, [and] they were just kind of surprising quick shots from pretty far out that we couldn't really do anything about."
    Thanks to Keene State senior goalkeeper Samantha Hirsh, who made eight saves in the game, Tufts did not score until the 84th minute, when sophomore Bailey Morgan came off the bench to fire her first goal of the season.
    "It's definitely great having so many people get involved in the scoring," Maxwell said. "It really makes us a more dangerous team. I think it's really nice to have such a deep bench, especially in the games when people are getting tired to know you have people who can come in and step up and get the job done. They've been doing a great job for us all year."
    Unfortunately for the Jumbos, the goal from Morgan was not enough to spark a late-game comeback, and with the loss the team dropped to 6-3 overall. With a 3-2 NESCAC record —  which places Tufts fifth in the conference standings — the squad now faces back-to-back games this weekend against league foes in nationally ranked No. 1 Williams Saturday and Wesleyan on Sunday.
    "Obviously we're expecting [Williams] to play really good, balanced soccer and be really dangerous on the counter-attack," Maxwell said. "That's probably their biggest weapon."
    "We'll probably work on defending and playing possession and just refocusing on the game," Shoham said. "We can play a lot better than we've been playing."