The nationally ranked No. 8 men's lacrosse team, seeded No. 3 heading into NESCAC Tournament play, won its first conference tournament game since 2006, advancing past the first round with a 12-8 win over No. 6-seeded Colby yesterday afternoon at Bello Field.
The win sets up a rematch with No. 2-seeded Bowdoin -- a team that beat Tufts 11-7 in the teams' regular-season finale on Friday -- in the semifinal round of the tournament Saturday at Middlebury. In the other semifinal, top-seeded and seven-time NESCAC Tournament champion Middlebury will host No. 4-seeded Wesleyan.
Early on in Sunday's game, it looked as though the Jumbos were still feeling the effects from Friday's loss to Bowdoin, as they trailed 3-1 early in the second quarter. Fortunately for Tufts, the team worked itself back into the game, scoring three straight goals before the half to take a 4-3 lead heading into the break. And despite a valiant effort from Colby, the Jumbos never relinquished their lead.
"We always try to pick it up as the game goes on," freshman Kevin McCormick said. "We started out kind of slow today, but that didn't stop us. We never give up, no matter how much we're down or how much we're ahead. We just keep plugging away."
"The difference today was that we were coming off a tough loss, which gave us fire," he continued. "But also being the potential last game of the season, we weren't going to have any of that, so we just gave it all, especially for the seniors and the coaches."
After goals from sophomore Matt Witko and senior tri-captain Clem McNally, McCormick scored the go-ahead goal on a sidearm shot inside the far post with 3:13 left in the second quarter.
"We were running a play, and then once I saw an opening, I just dodged, and so I went for it," McCormick said.
The game was struck by a moment of controversy late in the first quarter when the referees erased a Tufts goal due to confusion over an out-of-bounds call.
"The ball went out of bounds and it was our ball," McCormick said. "It should have been a quick whistle, which is what Clem did; he picked it off the end line pretty quickly and then passed it to [sophomore D.J. Hessler], who scored. But I think the misunderstanding was that one ref called it their ball and one called it our ball."
McNally scored a goal 13 seconds into the second half off an assist from senior tri-captain Jordan Yarboro to bring his team-leading goal total to 48, one shy of the record set by Dan Kollar (LA '01) in 2000.
After Colby junior and leading scorer Whit McCarthy scored a couple minutes later to move the score to 5-4, Tufts scored four straight goals to widen the lead to 9-4 and all but assure the victory. The Mules reduced the margin to 9-6, but sophomore Ryan Molloy responded with a goal with 7:31 remaining in the game to stop the bleeding. The goal was assisted by McNally, who set up near the right post, drawing the attention of the defense before firing a pass to Molloy for a quick-stick shot.
"That was a man-up play, but we just took what the defense gave us, and Ryan put a nice shot on the cage," McNally said.
Senior goalie Matt Harrigan helped the Jumbos hold off the Mules with his excellent play, recording 11 saves on the day, a number of which he stopped with his body.
"He played awesome -- he's always keeping us in the game," McCormick said. "We really appreciate it. He's one of our best-performing seniors."
"He stopped more balls than he let in, so that was good," McNally added. "He cleared the ball well, which was nice."
The entire Tufts defense played a strong game, as the eight Colby scores tied for the fifth-fewest goals allowed this season.
"We planned to limit them to as few goals as possible, which was good," McNally said. "We did that. We could have limited them to fewer goals, like zero, but our defense played well for sure."
Hessler scored a goal with 6:31 remaining to earn his 76th point of the season, tying the mark that Bryan Griffin (LA '05) set in 2004.
Tufts will now move on to face Bowdoin, a team that handled the Jumbos with relative ease on Friday. Bowdoin will attempt to make the NESCAC Tournament final for the second consecutive year; last year, it lost 9-4 to Williams in 2008's title game. The winner on Saturday will face off against either Middlebury or Wesleyan in the final on Sunday, with the conference title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.
