Over the past four seasons, one squad has dominated the NESCAC women's lacrosse scene: the Colby Mules, who have reached the conference championship game in each of the last four years, winning the title in 2008 and 2009. However, in last year's tournament, the Mules were upset by the Williams Ephs in the final — Williams' first ever NESCAC title.
In the past four NESCAC men's lacrosse championships, four different teams have emerged victorious. And in each of those four championships, the No. 1 seed in the tournament has been knocked out before even reaching the title game.
The quest to repeat history will begin Saturday, when the men's lacrosse team's campaign, arguably the most anticipated for any Tufts sport ever, kicks off at home against Amherst.
Last season, the men's lacrosse team powered its way to an impressive 20-1 record and pocketed the school's first NCAA Div. III National Championship. This year, coach Mike Daly and his team are ranked No. 1 in the country and head into this weekend's opener with a target on their backs. After graduating several crucial players, the Jumbos must ignore the hype and focus on fundamentals. By reconstructing their defense, maintaining last year's offensive gains, perfecting the basics and staying healthy, the Jumbos have the potential to reproduce last year's successes. Here are five key areas for them to focus on.
There are two kinds of March Madness — the kind that will take place in college basketball over the next few weeks and the kind that ensues when a fantasy baseball owner selects Jonathan Papelbon in the third round.
So on Friday night at the Garden, the Boston Celtics played the Golden State Warriors. The Celtics won 107-103, Monta Ellis put up 41 and Rajon Rondo dished out 16 dimes. Your basic game with a championship-caliber squad playing at home against an inferior, sub-.500 team, right? Wrong. One big difference: I was there.
Junior co−captain Mercedes Barba entered the CSA Individual Tournament this weekend knowing she would face superior competition after coach Belkys Velez picked her, the women's squash team's No. 3 player, to compete instead of the team's No. 1 player, junior Alix Michael.
Senior Rebecca Gorodetsky has worked at the desk at the Lunder Fitness Center in the Cousens Gym Complex for three years, but the scene on and around the gym's eight treadmills during her mid−afternoon shift the first week of spring semester was among the wildest that she's seen in her time working at Tufts.
Split between two venues this weekend, the men's track and field team brought home a set of strong performances to conclude the season for most of the Jumbos.
Evaluating a team's season is sometimes clear-cut. A team can overachieve and go further than even its most stalwart supporters ever dreamed or underachieve and fade to obscurity.
As part of its second annual "Judgment Day" training session with a former Marine, the men's lacrosse team performed leg lifts yesterday afternoon on Bello Field. The high-intensity session is designed to prepare the team, the reigning NCAA Div. III champions, as it enters this season.
For many runners, connecting stellar efforts in practice to race-day success can be difficult. Athletes can be in phenomenal shape and still struggle to reach new heights when the starting pistol fires. Workouts can be great and legs can feel fresh, but sometimes the races just do not come together.
Most collegiate teams will send their No. 1 player to the CSA Individual Tournament this weekend at Dartmouth College. Yet Tufts coach Belkys Velez decided two weeks ago to bypass No.1 Alix Michael to send junior co−captain Mercedes Barba, the team's No.3 player this season, to the national tournament instead.
The men's lacrosse team may not have any scrimmages lined up for the last Saturday before the start of its regular season, but that hardly means a weekend off for the Jumbos. On Sunday and Monday, the team will hit the pool deck, the gym and the practice field, as it participates in its second−annual Judgment Day training program, as the team has dubbed it.
The course of Tufts athletics history was changed forever in the quaint conference area in Halligan Hall nearly eight years ago on a sunny afternoon in June. From the outset of the family's vacation, one of their myriad road trips up and down the East Coast, the Grosses shuttled back and forth between their black 1998 Toyota Sienna minivan and collegiate meeting rooms, breaking from this standardized routine only for the obligatory tour or information session. The majority of schools were nice but unimpressive.
In watching soccer over the years, I have learned to expect the unexpected. Whether it's Liverpool coming back against AC Milan to win the Champions League in 2005, or Birmingham beating Arsenal in the Carling Cup final last Sunday, you can never quite tell what's going to happen next, no matter how unreasonable the outcome might seem. I mean, who would ever think that FIFA would award a World Cup to a country the size of Connecticut with no stadiums built for the event and an average summer temperature of 106 degrees? (I'm still seething about that.)
Monday's NHL trade deadline brought the customary annual excitement for hardcore hockey fans. As 3 p.m. drew closer and closer, pundits and fans feverishly monitored Twitter and refreshed browser windows, waiting for a game-changing trade to happen at any moment.
Seniors Colleen Hart and Vanessa Miller each earned one last NESCAC accolade yesterday when the All-Conference squads were announced. Hart was named to her fourth All-NESCAC team and third consecutive All-Conference First Team, while Miller won a second straight Defensive Player of the Year honor.
Three playoff appearances in 41 seasons. That's all the Milwaukee Brewers can boast. But a thrilling offseason has the fans at Miller Park wondering if 2011 just might be their year.
