Heading into Tuesday's road match against the Wellesley Blue, the women's field hockey team had gone 753 days without dropping a regular season away game. With a sweeping 9-0 non-conference drubbing, the 8-0 Jumbos made it 754.
The game earned nationally ranked No. 3 Tufts not only its biggest win thus far of the season, but also its largest margin of victory since its record-breaking 10-1 blowout against Wesleyan in the 2008 home-opener.
Oddly enough, it was the Blue that handed Tufts its last regular season loss on the road in a September 2007 overtime showdown. This time around, though, the Tufts squad walked away with something to boast about: The season-high goal total came off the sticks of eight different players.
"In my freshman year, we lost to Wellesley in overtime and [coach] Tina [McDavitt] definitely reminded us of that today so that we knew what we were up against," junior forward Tamara Brown said. "We hadn't really put a team away early yet, but we did that today and we did it with not just our starting lineup but with goals from eight members of the team, including freshmen."
The Blue had little to be proud about early in the game, as Tufts shot to a 4-0 lead by the 25-minute mark. Dominating Wellesley in first-half shots by an 18-3 margin, the Jumbos scored on two penalty corners and two free hit opportunities.
Eleven minutes into play, senior co-captain Margi Scholtes found the back of the net on a penalty corner. Less than 30 seconds later, senior co-captain Amanda Russo maneuvered past defenders to put the Jumbos up 2-0.
The remaining goals of the first half came from senior forward Michelle Kelly on a feed from junior midfielder Amanda Roberts and from junior midfielder Jess Perkins, who tallied the final goal of the half on a penalty corner at the 23-minute mark to bring the score to 4-0.
In all, the Jumbos converted on 2-5 penalty corner plays, bombarding Wellesley keeper Sarina Sawyer, who still recorded eight saves in the half. On the opposite end, Tufts sophomore Marianna Zak did little work, fielding three shots, all of which were off goal.
"We dominated in the first half and had the ball pretty much the whole time," Russo said. "The Wellesley goalie was really aggressive, but we overcame on rebounds. We played to our strengths and were able to move around her and make concise shots … I thought we did great on capitalizing on our shot opportunities, which is something that we haven't had as much success doing in past games."
On the heels of its biggest halftime lead of the season, the Jumbos shuffled their lineup to include a mix of freshmen and backup players that seamlessly transitioned into play. First-year forwards Lia Sagerman, Missy Karp and Kerry Eaton all scored in the last fifteen minutes of action, marking the first goals of the year for Karp and Sagerman.
Earlier in the half, junior forward Melissa Burke slipped past defenders to pick up a goal on an assist from sophomore forward Lindsey Griffith. Likewise, Russo recorded her second goal of the game on a breakaway opportunity that left the Blue's goal wide open. By tapping its arsenal of veteran and newcomer players, the Tufts squad threw salt on the wounds of a 7-4 Wellesley team.
"The freshmen played amazing," Russo said. "There wasn't any drop off between taking out the starters and putting the freshmen players in, and they played well with each other and the starters still on the field. It really shows the amount of depth we have this year."
"I think in the second half a lot of the freshmen got in and did a great job of making the transition," Brown added. "Because of the lead we had, we were able to try different setups and players in different positions that we've been drawing up in practice so that was an opportunity we don't get every game."
On defense, Zak and junior Katie Hyder shared time in the cage. With Wellesley's five penalty corners and a shot total that ballooned to 10, Hyder faced a stronger offensive effort from the Blue. Yet Hyder notched four saves, working in harmony with defenders like sophomore Taylor Dyer, who helped keep play out of Tufts' backfield and possession in the hands of the Jumbos' forward line.
"Obviously getting the shutout was great, but I think that the defense can get overlooked just because of the nature of the position," Brown. "In this game, the defense played great and they were a major force in making stops and keeping Wellesley out of the circle. Without them, we wouldn't be able to hold possession like we did and get nine goals."
This weekend, the Jumbos will take on the Colby Mules at Bello Field in the Homecoming game, beginning a three-game home stretch that pits Tufts against Conn. College and an undefeated Trinity squad later in the week. Colby, with a 1-3 in-conference record, has not beaten Tufts since the 2003 season, while Tufts has beaten the Mules by a margin of two goals or more in every game since 2005.
Even so, the Jumbos are taking a big-picture perspective on the week's matches, knowing full well that they will be tested in each match along the way.
"We want to keep proving to the NESCAC and to every other team that we can take on anybody," Russo said.
