The women's lacrosse team reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in program history, falling to No. 4 Cortland State just after a resounding 17-6 round-one victory on the road against Endicott.
Host Cortland entered the May 14 contest with a 19-1 overall record and an undefeated record in the SUNYAC conference and gave Keene State a 21-3 thrashing in the first round. The Jumbos worked hard to keep themselves in the game and, with less than two minutes to go in the first half, rising senior attackman Lara Kozin scored to cut the lead to 6-5. But the Red Dragons roared back, scoring twice before the end of the period before adding five more unanswered goals to start the second half. At that point, a 13-5 Cortland lead with less than 14 minutes remaining put the game out of Tufts' reach. The Jumbos found the net twice more but lost, 13-7, to end their season.
"We weren't passing well; we couldn't stop their scheme in the midfield; a lot of people were injured or hurt yesterday — it just really wasn't our day," graduating senior defenseman tri-captain Yael Tzipori said.
Attackman Steph Perez and midfielder Casey Egan, both rising seniors, had to sit a few minutes after getting injured early, while Kozin played the entire game after cutting her finger with a bread knife and receiving stitches that morning.
The Jumbos were also mentally unprepared for the Red Dragons' playing style.
"I think that we were outplayed in terms of aggressiveness," rising senior midfielder Emily Pillemer said. "They were not only dirtier but were also going for more ‘50-50' balls. They played a different style of lacrosse than we did, and we didn't expect that."
Just three days earlier, Tufts went to Beverly, Mass., to take on Commonwealth Coast Conference champion Endicott, a team the Jumbos had handled 19-10 on Bello Field earlier this season. This time, the stakes were higher and the Gulls had the home-turf advantage, but the result was the same. Tufts dominated, taking a 10-3 lead into halftime and stretching it to 14-3 in the second. From there, the Jumbos cruised to a 17-6 victory.
"I think we're just a better-skilled team than Endicott, so we were able to move the ball around them very quickly on attack," Tzipori said. "On defense, we're good at stopping drives and that's pretty much all they do, so I think that was why that worked for us against them."
Tufts subdued an Endicott offense that entered averaging 15 goals per game by holding the Gulls' top two scorers — rising senior attackman Morgan DeShaw and rising junior midfielder Holly Davis — to two goals apiece. Meanwhile, rising sophomore attackman Gabby Horner had four goals, Kozin had three goals and five assists and Egan added three goals and three assists for the Jumbos.
In the NESCAC Tournament the previous week, Tufts played two 13-12 thrillers, beating Middlebury on May 1 but falling to then-undefeated Trinity in the semifinals on May 7.
Against Middlebury, Tufts took a 13-10 lead with 3 1/2 minutes left and held off a late surge by the Panthers to win. The Jumbos were outshot 29-22, but graduating senior tri-captain Sara Bloom made 12 huge saves in one of the best performances of her career. Egan, Horner and rising senior attackman Kelly Hyland each scored three goals.
In the semifinal showdown against Trinity, the Jumbos were on the other end of a near-identical scenario, trailing 13-10 with just under three minutes to play. Rising junior attackman Kerry Eaton and Perez scored to cut the deficit to 13-12, but Tufts was unable to muster one more goal in the final two minutes.
The loss ended a wild season of conference play for the Jumbos. They played 11 NESCAC games, including the championship, seven of which were determined by a single goal. Between April 23 and May 7, they played four straight one-goal conference battles.
"All four of our [regular-season] league losses were by one, and it was incredibly disappointing to have that keep happening," Tzipori said. "I'm not really sure why that kept happening, either. It shows that we are a good team; we can compete with every team in our league; and for whatever reason it just wasn't our year in terms of those one-goal games."
With a 5-4 conference record and an 11-6 overall record, it seemed the Jumbos were on the outside looking in for an NCAA Tournament berth. The day after the NESCAC Semifinal defeat, NCAA.com streamed its Division III Women's Lacrosse Selection Show to announce the 31-team tournament field.
The only thing the Jumbos could do was cross their fingers.
"We were very surprised," Tzipori said. "We knew that we had a decent chance because there are so many at-large bids and we're a top-20 team ... but we just weren't sure if it was actually going to happen."
Pillemer agreed with Tzipori.
"We didn't expect it, but we knew we deserved it," Pillemer said.
It was the program's second tournament appearance; the first was in 2009, when the team, which included 12 members of the current squad, also reached the second round. Five NESCAC schools earned a bid this year.
Despite their victories in the conference and NCAA tournaments, the Jumbos can't help but wish they had come out on top in more one-goal games this season.
"We had six losses [before NCAAs]; five of them were one-goal games, and we should have won each of them. That's really demoralizing," Pillemer said. "I think next year we have to regroup and come back as a team and not lose those one-goal games, because that's what killed us this year."
Still, it would be unfair to label as a failure a 12-7 season that included wins in both the NESCAC and NCAA Tournaments.
"I had a satisfying season in terms of just really enjoying being part of that team; it's an amazing team," Tzipori said. "Honestly, I think we could have done much better than we did, and I think that the scores of the games we lost show that. It could have been better record-wise than it was, but I still had a great time."
