After 90 minutes of competitive play Saturday against the Trinity Bantams, the Jumbos found themselves on the wrong end of a 2-1 result, marking their fifth loss in the last seven games.
Tufts, now 7-5-0 overall and 4-4-0 in the NESCAC, took to Campus Field in Hartford, Conn., with high hopes for turning its season around. The team has been relatively successful against the Bantams in recent years, having beaten them three times since 2004. Last year, the Jumbos also lost to the Bantams by a one-goal margin.
But the Bantams came out strong, scoring the game's first goal in just the fourth minute, when Trinity freshman Jenny Lee snuck a shot past sophomore goalkeeper Hannah Jacobs after receiving a pass from senior Erika Maciaszczyk. Trinity sustained its lead until the 65th minute, when Tufts junior tri-captain Whitney Hardy's pass was deflected into the goal by classmate Ali Maxwell to even the score at 1-1, netting Maxwell her fourth goal of the season. The assist was Hardy's second of the year.
The tie lasted for just 12 minutes, however, as the Bantams struck again in the 77th minute, thanks to a strike from junior Caitlin Prendergast, to secure Trinity's key NESCAC win over the Jumbos.
"We worked really hard and the balls just didn't bounce our way," freshman midfielder Alix Michael said. "Individually, we played well but as a team, it was hard to work cohesively. In a game like soccer, it is important to have team cohesiveness and to move well together as a unit. Even if everyone plays well individually, you always need that X-factor that puts everyone's attributes together."
The Jumbos, following a season trend, outshot Trinity 13-7. The flipside of that statistic, however, was the team's lagging 4:10 saves ratio against the Bantams.
"If we had played the way we did against Williams, we would have won," Michael said. "But no team can always play to their potential every day."
"I think the most important thing is to come out with a sense of urgency right from the beginning instead of waiting until later in the game," junior midfielder Fanna Gamal added. "And with the season winding down, we need to just forget about all the games in the past and focus on the future.
"We're a really young team and our play fluctuates because of that," she continued. "Sometimes we play amazingly for all 90 minutes and sometimes we look like we're floundering a little. I think that comes from lack of experience, not lack of effort or passion."
With their 4-4 NESCAC record, the Jumbos have secured a spot in the first round of the postseason NESCAC tournament, scheduled to start Nov. 2. Joining Tufts in the tourney will be Williams, Amherst, Middlebury, Bowdoin and Trinity, which now boasts an identical 4-4 conference mark.
Tufts will take on Bowdoin on Friday in its regular season finale, but not before hosting nonconference foe Endicott, a team Tufts hasn't squared off against for over a decade. The Jumbos will take on the Gulls at 3 p.m. tomorrow for their last game on home turf this season.
"It's very important for us to win out-of-league games to increase our probability of getting into the national league tournament," Michael said of tomorrow's contest. "It's also important to build momentum for the NESCAC Tournament this upcoming weekend."
"If we don't bounce back from the Trinity game, we won't get the momentum to carry us to [this] week's pivotal game," Gamal added. "And there are no shoulda, coulda, wouldas at that point."
