One of the greatest seasons any team on the Hill has ever compiled has come to the most painful of endings.
The field hockey team was tantalizingly close to delivering Tufts its first-ever NCAA team national championship yesterday afternoon in Collegeville, Penn. But in the end, the nationally ranked No. 4 Jumbos fell just short, dropping a 3-2 double-overtime decision to No. 3 Bowdoin in the NCAA Div. III title game.
Polar Bears senior tri-captain Lindsay McNamara, Bowdoin's all-time leading scorer, delivered for her team one final time, backhanding the game-winner past freshman goalkeeper Marianna Zak 2:02 into the second extra session.
"It's just unfortunate that we lost the way that we lost," junior midfielder Margi Scholtes said. "We had an amazing season, a ton of fun, we broke records left and right; for it to end on that goal and to be so close to being national champions, it's just hard to understand and hard to come to grips with. We were so close."
Tufts' historic 2008 campaign ends at 19-2, with both losses coming in one-goal games against the Polar Bears. Bowdoin, meanwhile, picks up its second national championship in as many years, becoming the sport's first repeat champion since Salisbury captured three straight crowns from 2003 through 2005.
Trailing 2-1 at halftime, the Jumbos forced overtime behind a second-half surge that saw them outshoot the Polar Bears 8-1. They notched the equalizer with 20:06 left in regulation, as sophomore forward Tamara Brown received a perfect lead pass from junior forward Michelle Kelly and found the back of the cage for the 28th time this season.
"At the time, we thought this was the last 35 minutes of our season," coach Tina McDavitt said. "We just talked about just giving 100 percent, laying it on the line, giving it all they had, and that's what they did. Tamara's goal was fantastic. The team was working really hard to get the ball up to the forwards, and they were able to do that."
Had it not been for the stellar play of Bowdoin senior goalkeeper Emileigh Mercer, the damage could have been a lot worse. Tufts was awarded three penalty corners between the 6:10 and 7:06 marks of the second half, but the Jumbos could not push the ball past the proverbial wall that was Mercer, who made four critical saves during the stretch. Mercer then stopped Tufts on three more corner chances in the final 6:16 of the period to keep the score knotted at two.
"Emileigh Mercer is an awesome goalie," McDavitt said. "We watched the [semifinal] game [Saturday] versus Ursinus, and she had some fantastic saves against them. Whenever I thought we had a shot, she'd get it. Then, we'd get a second opportunity, and she'd dive and get that, too. I thought she just did an excellent job for them."
That set the stage for the first of two riveting overtime periods, in which each squad had its opportunities to put the national title away. The Jumbos' best chance came on a penalty corner in the game's 78th minute, but the team could not convert it into a shot on goal. On the Polar Bears' side, meanwhile, McNamara hit the left post with a shot attempt in the final 15 seconds of the first overtime period.
But on the first scoring opportunity for either side in the second overtime, the All-American redeemed herself, notching the 92nd and final goal of her illustrious career in the game's 87th minute.
The Jumbos did have a lead in the game, jumping out to a 1-0 advantage at the 1:13 mark of the first half when Brown tipped in a free hit that was rifled off the stick of Scholtes. But Bowdoin immediately turned back Tufts' momentum, tying the contest just 1:25 later on a tally by senior forward Madeleine McQueeney.
"As our coach says, the two minutes after either team scores a goal are the most important," Scholtes said. "That's when another goal is usually scored by either team. We were just caught off guard from their goal. It kind of took away our momentum. We had to start over, regroup and get back to our hockey."
For the remainder of the first half, the Jumbos' offense mounted virtually no threats, as the team failed to register another shot until the 31:44 mark of the period. With the ball primarily in Tufts' end, the Polar Bears capitalized, as junior forward Shavonne Lord put home a rebound with 24:16 to play in the half, to give Bowdoin a 2-1 advantage heading into halftime.
"Bowdoin's just a solid team and just such a solid defensive team," McDavitt said. "It is hard to get around them and get through them. When we had one on one, they did a great job of breaking up the play and just stopping the ball."
The game marked the third meeting between NESCAC rivals Tufts and Bowdoin this season. The teams first squared off in their respective regular season finales on Oct. 31, when the Jumbos went into Brunswick, Maine and knocked off the then-No. 1 Polar Bears 4-3 to clinch Tufts' first-ever conference regular season crown. Bowdoin exacted its revenge nine days later, dealing the squad a 1-0 setback in the NESCAC championship game on Bello Field. Following yesterday's win, the Polar Bears have now lost to the Jumbos just once in the last decade.
Yesterday's defeat brings to a close what will unquestionably go down as the field hockey team's greatest season ever, one which featured a perfect 14-0 regular season, the deepest postseason run in program history and three victories over teams that were each at one point ranked No. 1 this season. A fourth proved too elusive, but for Tufts, not even a loss this bitter could taint all that the team accomplished in 2008.
"As sad and as frustrating and as upsetting as it is to lose, looking back, we had an amazing season," Scholtes said. "We couldn't have asked for a better season; 19-2 is an amazing record and nothing to look back on and be disappointed about. It just sets the stage for next year. There's only one way to go: back to the national championship."
