It may be 16-1, but the field hockey team knows that the lone blemish on an otherwise perfect season came after its most recent contest, a 1-0 loss in the conference title game Sunday. And with an at-large bid and new life in the NCAA Championship this weekend, the Jumbos are primed to put that loss behind them with a win over the Springfield Pride tomorrow on Bello Field.
The Pride finished the season 13-5 in the New England Men's and Women's Athletic Conference and won their conference tournament to launch themselves to NCAAs. Although it did not face Tufts during the regular season, Springfield took on five NESCAC teams: Middlebury, Amherst, Trinity, Williams and Conn. College. Although they defeated the Camels and Lord Jeffs, the Pride lost handily to the remaining three squads, while Tufts swept the NESCAC regular season.
"I've seen them play five times this year," coach Tina McDavitt said of Springfield. "They're really athletic and really fast. They play more of an athletic game, whereas I think we're more skilled."
The Pride only scored four goals against the NESCAC teams they faced during the regular season, compared to the 12 goals notched against them. But the Jumbos will not use these statistics as a basis for judging the quality of Springfield's play.
"It would be dumb to look at this team and say, 'Well, Middlebury beat them and we beat Middlebury, so we're going to win,'" McDavitt said. "Once teams get to the NCAAs, they understand what it's about and they have a certain attitude when they play. Championship teams are expecting to win, but other teams come out with a different mentality."
In fact, the NCAA championship has already had its share of upsets thus far. While unranked Keene State defeated 2-1 Springfield early in the regular season, the Pride retaliated with a 1-0 victory over the Owls on Wednesday night in first-round play. In another surprising turn of events, No. 10 Johns Hopkins fell to No. 17 Christopher Newport 2-1 on Wednesday as well.
"Last year, going into the NCAA Tournament when we played Salisbury, we wanted to win but we were just excited to be there," McDavitt said. "But after the game we realized that we really could have beat them."
The Jumbos' 2007 campaign ended at the hands of then-No. 2 Salisbury, which continued on to the tournament's quarterfinals for the 17th time in program history. The Sea Gulls, already sporting an intimidating résumé, scored on then-No. 15 Tufts only 57 seconds into the first half.
"Last year was the first time we won an NCAA game, and the first time anyone on that team had been to NCAAs," senior tri-captain Marlee Kutcher said. "This year, we're obviously just as excited to be here but we expect to be here and we expect a lot of ourselves. We've proved ourselves this season, but NCAAs are a fresh slate."
"There's a difference between hoping that we're going to win and knowing that we're good, and we're going to win; that's the attitude that I hope the team brings to this weekend," McDavitt said. "We deserve to be here and we deserve to win, and we need to come out and play hard to make sure that that happens. We have the ability to control the game and the outcome."
Looking ahead at possible future NCAA games, the Jumbos appear to enjoy a slight advantage as they will not face a conference team until the semifinals when they could potentially play Trinity for a spot in the championship. But before the Bantams can play Tufts in the semifinals, they must defeat No. 1 Messiah, a team that has sat atop the NCAA rankings since Bowdoin fell to Tufts on Oct. 31. Middlebury and Bowdoin will have to face each other before advancing to the final.
"The NESCAC has four of the top 10 teams in the country, so to have gone a perfect 9-0 in the conference is something we're really proud of, and I think now's a perfect chance to come out and prove just how strong the NESCAC is," said sophomore forward Tamara Brown, who led the Jumbos with 22 goals this fall. "It's really cool that the NESCAC had four teams make it to NCAAs this year, more than any other conference in the country, and coming from such a strong conference, we want to prove that we're the best of the best."
"From the coach's poll and the NESCAC showing in the NCAA Tournament, you can tell that the NESCAC is one of the strongest leagues in the country," Kutcher said. "I think it makes sense the way they do the brackets so that those teams won't face each other until later."
If the Jumbos win tomorrow, they will have back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday for the second straight weekend. Last weekend's overtime win against Trinity resulted in an exhausted squad having to face Bowdoin, and the results were disappointing.
"We can't get too psyched out about it; we need to think about our success in the past, seeing as we have done well," said McDavitt. "One game of bad corners doesn't define us; we can't get caught up in that. We have to look at the season as a whole -- we played great for so many games and we need to play our best in the moment."
