This past Saturday, Tufts’ campus was buzzing with the excitement of the NESCAC tournament. Both men’s and women’s soccer competed for conference titles on Bello field, volleyball kicked off its tournament run in Cousens Gymnasium and field hockey faced fourth-seeded Wesleyan.
Tufts started the game strong, earning a penalty corner just a minute and 59 seconds in thanks to junior midfielder Lilly Ragusa. But when Wesleyan’s defense managed to strip the ball before the Jumbos could get a shot off, the Cardinals set the tone for what would become an impenetrable defense for the rest of the game.
“Wesleyan came out ready to play, and credit to them, they executed well,” junior defender Claire Casey — an All-NESCAC First Team selection — wrote in a message to the Daily.
The remainder of the first quarter was indecisive as both teams looked to apply pressure on each end of the field. Wesleyan earned a corner of its own with two minutes and 34 seconds remaining, but theshot went wide, leaving the game tied 0–0 heading into the first break.
The second quarter held all the action. Starting with possession, the Cardinals quickly penetrated the Jumbos’ defensive end and earned their second penalty corner about five minutes in, which led to yet another. Tufts’ flyer, senior forward Hannah Biccard, swiftly intercepted a pass at the top of the circle, but Wesleyan regained control shortly after and earned another corner. This time, the Cardinals executed a clever trick play: the ball was inserted to the top, one attacker faked right and the ball instead went left to sophomore forward Leila Feldman, who sent a straight shot into the cage.
Now down by one, Tufts attempted to push the ball upfield. It was not long, however, before Wesleyan managed to score another goal to extend their lead. Just two minutes and 34 seconds later, first-year forward Meera Patel slid a pass to Feldman, who found herself in a one-on-one with senior goalkeeper Lydia Eastburn and tapped in her second goal of the game.
With less than half the quarter remaining, Tufts defended two more Wesleyan corners before earning one of their own with 18 seconds left in the quarter. Ragusa inserted the ball to sophomore midfielder Eleanor Luft, whose powerful shot was blocked by the Wesleyan goalie to end the half.
The third quarter returned to an even matchup, with both teams generating opportunities to get shots off.
Determined to get on the scoreboard, Tufts dominated most of the possession in the final period, earning four penalty corners and preventing Wesleyan from taking a single shot or earning a single corner. The first three Jumbos corners were stopped by the Cardinal’s unwavering defense. On the fourth corner, with four minutes left in the game, Tufts thought it finally had its breakthrough. Luft received the insert at the top of the circle and passed to Biccard, who fired a shot into the back of the cage. Much to the Jumbos’ disappointment, the goal was disallowed for being too high.
Wesleyan controlled possession for the final minutes, runnnig down the clock to secure a huge upset and hand Tufts their first shutout loss of the season.
“We definitely weren’t at our best, but we tried to stay focused and work together as a team throughout,” Casey wrote. “Sometimes it just isn’t your day, and unfortunately that was the case for us.”
Wesleyan advanced to the championship game, where it fell to No. 3 Bates.
It wasn’t all bad news for field hockey this weekend. Four other Jumbos earned all-conference honors alongside Casey. Casey and Biccard were named to the All-NESCAC First Team, while Eastburn, Luft and first-year midfielder Eleanor Helm earned Second Team honors. On Sunday, the Jumbos also received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, joining seven other NESCAC teams for a conference record.
“It’s tough because we had high expectations as the top seed, but we’re using this as motivation moving forward,” Casey wrote. “We still have high hopes for the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully we got our off game out of the way and can take care of business the rest of the way.”
It certainly seemed that way on Wednesday evening, as the Jumbos ended their brief scoring drought with an emphatic 11–0 victory over Dean College. Seven different players scored, showcasing Tufts’ depth, while the defense secured a shutout. Junior midfielder Sophie Brants recorded a hat trick, while Biccard, Ragusa and junior midfielder Reagan Malo scored twice each. Sophomore forward Hannah Murray and sophomore midfielder Riley Schmidt added one goal a piece.
The Jumbos move on to face conference rival No. 18 Williams in the second round on Saturday in Maine.
