Just two games into the regular season, the No. 11 women's lacrosse team already appears to be on a roll. After escaping with a one-goal win at home against Hamilton over the weekend, Tufts improved to 2-0 in the NESCAC on Tuesday with a convincing 12-7 road victory over Conn. College, ouscoring their opponents 8-4 in the second half.
Much like the opening game against the Continentals, the Jumbos got off to a slow start, conceding the first two goals of the contest after a long stretch of scoreless play at the beginning of the first half. It was a lackluster opening for the Jumbos, who may have been affected by the fact that they had to play two games in four days to start the season, not to mention the long bus ride they endured before the game.
"Our defense was playing well, but we were dropping a lot of balls, and our transitions were basically nowhere," senior midfielder Emily Pillemer said. "We needed to focus more on the fundamentals of the game."
Things started to pick up as the first half wore on, and Tufts managed to take a 4-3 lead into halftime after a goal by junior defender Meg Boland put her team ahead with 3:56 remaining. Despite the one-goal advantage, the Jumbos - who averaged over 11.5 goals per game against conference opponents in 2011 - were not satisfied with just four first-half goals against a team that did not even make last year's NESCAC tournament.
"During halftime we discussed how the defense was working really hard and giving the offense a lot of opportunities, but we weren't capitalizing," sophomore attackman Gabby Horner said. "We just talked about being patient, taking advantage of our chances and making sure we hit the net."
The discussion during the break appeared to have an immediate effect, as the Jumbos put the Camels under a relentless attack at the outset of the second half.
Senior tri-captain Lara Kozin assisted on two goals that came just 29 seconds apart. She first fed junior attackman Kerry Eaton, and then set up senior Casey Egan on a beautiful pass from behind the net. Kozin had five points in the game, a team high for the young season.
With 8:53 remaining, the Jumbos had established a commanding 12-4 lead. The Camels managed to score three late goals, but it was too little, too late.
Tufts' defense was strong as a whole in the second frame, and it needed to be: Conn. College dominated the draw controls, winning seven of nine on the day.
"The defense has been playing incredibly, and they're really the backbone of the team right now," Horner said. "They just have so much intensity and are playing at such a high level, and we're winning all of the loose balls, all of the ground balls."
"Allowing three goals in a half in lacrosse is great, and our defense put us in position to win the game," Pillemer added.
The win in the Jumbos' first road game of the season temporarily puts them atop the NESCAC at 2-0, though five teams in the conference have yet to play their second league contests. While the top of the standings is certainly where the team wants to be, the players know that they need to continue to improve in order to stay there.
"We're going to look to fire up our offensive game and generally make things cleaner, so that all the units of the team work together," Pillemer said. "Sometimes in a game things that are second nature in practice don't come so easily, things like throwing and catching and cutting to balls. We just need to make sure the basics of our game are where they should be."
After a non-conference game at Babson on Friday, eight of the team's 11 remaining games will be against NESCAC opponents. Over spring break trip, the Jumbos will travel to Claremont, Fla., where they will take on Western Connecticut State and Colby.
