The way the field hockey team executed on its plethora of penalty-corner chances this weekend, you might not have had the slightest clue that the Jumbos were the ones with home-field advantage.
When the semifinal and championship rounds of the NESCAC Tournament moved to Bello Field, Tufts was supposed to have a leg-up on its competition because of its familiarity with Bello's field turf, a surface that lends itself to a slower-paced game. The Jumbos were in a particularly advantageous position because the weekend's three other competitors — Bowdoin, Middlebury and Trinity — all play home games on faster-paced AstroTurf.
But a team that averaged 5.67 goals per game in Medford entering the weekend suddenly lost its stroke, as sophomore forward Tamara Brown's overtime tally against Trinity in Saturday's semifinal game was the only goal Tufts managed all weekend. One of the principle culprits of the Jumbos' offensive ineffectiveness was the team's failure to convert on its penalty-corner chances — all 41 of them — across the semifinal and championship rounds of the tournament.
"We had a lot of opportunities," senior tri-captain Tess Jasinski said. "The ball was getting knocked around the circle a lot, but the refs were [blowing the whistle] on the play early, so we were losing our momentum in front of the cage. [Saturday,] Trinity just had great sticks and they really packed in the circle, and [yesterday,] we really only had a couple corners and we had some really good chances, but we just weren't able to score."
Poor penalty-corner execution very nearly cost the Jumbos in their semifinal matchup against Trinity. Tufts had an astounding 24 corner chances in the second half alone — more than it managed in any game all season — but failed to turn a single one of them into goals. As a result, the Bantams forced the Jumbos into a do-or-die overtime session, where Tufts survived thanks to Brown's 22nd goal of the season.
In yesterday's title game against Bowdoin, however, the Jumbos were unable to overcome their ineffective corner play, dropping a 1-0 decision that ended their perfect season. Needing a second-half score to pull even with the Polar Bears, Tufts couldn't convert any of the five penalty-corner chances it received in the period into a shot on goal.
"It was just a combination of a lot of things," junior midfielder Margi Scholtes said. "We just weren't connecting. [Yesterday], even though we had a lot fewer corners, we did a better job of taking the ball in and putting it somewhere with purpose. We had chances like crazy today on our corners in the last five minutes, but we just couldn't finish."
