In 2008, the field hockey team practically rewrote the program's record books on its way to a 19-2 season. However, two accomplishments — a NESCAC championship and a national championship —wound up a tad out of reach.
The encore to that historic season has thus far been a different story. On Sunday, Tufts captured its first-ever conference crown, knocking off host and top seed Trinity 3-2 in the title match. Having subsequently earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, the Jumbos turned their attention to the other piece of hardware that eluded them a year ago: the walnut and bronze trophy awarded to the NCAA champion. Yesterday, they learned what awaits them in their road to the title.
Tufts received a first-round bye and home-field advantage through the national quarterfinals, the NCAA Tournament committee announced yesterday morning. Thanks to their sterling 16-1 record and their success in arguably the nation's toughest conference, the Jumbos earned the right to host second- and third-round contests on Bello Field this weekend.
The team's pursuit of the NCAA crown will begin Saturday morning at 11 a.m., when it takes on the winner of tomorrow's first-round contest between MIT and Nichols.
"The first thing I thought about when I woke up [yesterday] morning was if we were hosting or not," senior co-captain Amanda Russo said. "So it was really exciting to find out that we are."
Participating in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season, an experienced Tufts squad will look to do one better than last year's finish, when it dropped a painful double-overtime decision to Bowdoin in the title game.
"I really think our experience from last year is going to be key to our success this year," Russo said. "It's easy to get caught up in the excitement and novelty of just being in NCAAs, and now it's easier to break it down and look at it more as just another field hockey game."
For the second consecutive year, the NESCAC will be sending four teams to the NCAA Tournament. Tufts will be joined in this year's field by at-large selections Amherst, Middlebury and Trinity.
Despite finishing as the top-ranked team in the New England West region and as the NESCAC's regular season champion, the Bantams were given a tough tournament draw, with a road to the Final Four that includes the traditional heavyweight Panthers and national No. 3 Ursinus. Amherst, meanwhile, would head to Tufts for a second-round clash against No. 9 Skidmore if it gets past Husson tomorrow afternoon.
"Obviously it's great that four teams from our [conference] made it into the tournament," Russo said. "That says a lot about the strength of our schedule."
Conspicuously absent from this year's tournament, however, are the two-time defending national champion Bowdoin Polar Bears, whose season is over after finishing sixth in the NESCAC and enduring its first conference tournament loss since 2004.
See Thursday's Daily for a complete preview of Tufts' second-round matchup.
