This time around, leaving Pennsylvania on a losing note is no longer an option.
On the field hockey team's last visit to Collegeville, Penn., the Jumbos left with a bitter taste in their mouths following a 3?2, double?overtime defeat to NESCAC rival Bowdoin in the 2008 national championship game.
So as Tufts readies for its NCAA second?round matchup against Middlebury tomorrow at Ursinus, the Jumbos have their sights squarely set on punching a ticket to the Final Four.
"We'd be lying if we said it wasn't [on our minds]," senior Tamara Brown said. "For the juniors and seniors, it's the last memory from that field, but it's a new year and a new team. We're trying to put that in the back of our minds and not focus on it at all."
Before Tufts can get a crack at national No. 2 Ursinus with a bid to the national semifinals on the line, it first has to deal with a familiar foe. On Saturday, the Jumbos will square off against Middlebury, who won 6?0 against Cabrini in the first round.
In both teams' season?opener on Sept. 11, the Jumbos blanked the Panthers 3?0 behind two goals from Brown, the two?time defending NESCAC Player of the Year. After 25 minutes of back?and?forth play, Tufts struck with a goal from senior Melissa Burke and never looked back, firing 29 total shots at Middlebury goalie Madeline Brooks, by far the most the sophomore has seen in a single game all year.
If the Panthers try to silence Brown, who ranks fourth nationally with 1.41 goals per game and seventh with 3.24 points per game with a consistent double team - a strategy employed successfully by Bowdoin in the Polar Bears' 3?0 win in the NESCAC Championship this past weekend - the Jumbos will be ready with a bevy of weapons that includes sophomore Lia Sagerman, who has a team?high .259 shooting percentage, and Burke, who is second on the team with 21 points.
"If they go with double?teaming tomorrow, that means we'll have a person open," senior co?captain Jess Perkins said. "We've been working this week on finding that person, regardless of where she is on the field, and using the space to our advantage."
The Panthers, however, have won 10 of their past 11 games and enter Saturday on a hot streak, having scored 14 goals in their past four contests. Middlebury will be led by sophomore Lauren Greer, who fired 14 shots against the Cavaliers on Wednesday, finding the back of the cage twice.
"They're going to be a very different team from two months ago, just like we are," Brown said. "Middlebury's always a good team."
On the defensive end, the Jumbos will counter with NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year Taylor Dyer, a senior, who anchors a unit that has posted 10 shutouts throughout the season and is second in the nation with 0.58 goals against per game.
After receiving an at?large bid to the NCAA tournament following the loss to Bowdoin, the Jumbos will look to reach the Final Four for the third straight year.
"The big mentality is thinking about how we can use the loss as a wake?up call and rebound from it," Brown said. "That was just an off?day all around. We'll use it as motivation."
For a senior class that has secured bids to NCAAs in all four seasons at Tufts, experience will surely be a factor.
"That's something we've been talking about a lot as a senior class," Brown said. "We're two years older, two years more mature and more experienced. I think that's something we were lacking two years ago, but now we have that experience and we're trying to use it to our advantage."
On the other side of the regional bracket is host Ursinus (18?1), which has not lost since Sept. 3 when the Bears fell to national No. 1 Messiah and cruised to the Centennial Conference title, scoring 12 combined goals in the semifinal and championship rounds. Ursinus on Saturday will take on Juniata, winners of a first?round game against the College of Wooster.
Recently, the Jumbos have gotten the best of the Panthers and are winners of four of the past five meetings, the only loss coming in overtime in the NESCAC semifinals on Nov. 3, 2007. In those games, Tufts has outscored Middlebury 15?8, racking up three tallies in each contest. The Jumbos' high?powered offense, which has scored at least three goals 11 times this season, will look to get back on track after being shut out for the first time since the 2009 national semifinals.
"We've been working a lot on putting more pressure on the ball and working on using numbers for advantages, such as setting up 2?v?1s," Perkins said. "We're trying to use numbers as an advantage whenever possible."
Reaching the Final Four will be no easy feat for the Jumbos, especially with a hungry Middlebury team and a dominant Urinus squad in front of them. Yet it would be similarly unwise to overlook Tufts, whose loaded roster seems bent on heading to Christopher Newport for a shot at the first national title in program history.
"A big thing for us has just been taking it one game at a time," Brown said. "We watched film [of Middlebury] from earlier in the season and got scouting reports from other coaches. Right now, it's all about Middlebury, and then we'll go from there."Philip Dear contributed reporting to this article.
