Salem State was precisely the type of opponent that was supposed to be a tough matchup for the women's basketball team this season.
After dropping their first six games of the 2009 season, the Tennessee Titans were left for dead.
Playing on the road against No. 9 Brandeis, conventional wisdom would say shooting 1-for-19 from beyond the arc would be a recipe for disaster for Tufts. But on the back of an inspiring performance by senior forward Julia Baily and a defense that stifled the Brandeis attack, the women's basketball team pulled out a hard-fought 60-50 upset victory over the previously undefeated Judges, a feat that could have lasting effects as the season progresses.
Allow me to be emotional for a second, because I want to eulogize the fallen. For 600 words, please excuse the lack of movie references, bad jokes and made-up theories, because I would like to talk about Abe Pollin.
After earning its first win of the season and its first piece of hardware in nearly a decade, the Tufts hockey team certainly had a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving weekend.
30 - Consecutive wins by Clemson men's basketball team in the month of November before a 69-60 loss to Texas A&M in southern California on Thursday. Oliver Purnell's Tigers' squad dropped its opening game of the 76 Classic to the Aggies, but then recovered to beat Long Beach State and edge a highly regarded Butler team over the weekend. Clemson has now won 32 of its last 33 November games, although it's worth noting that the Aggies and Bulldogs were their first ranked opponents during that span.
Although it didn't end the way anyone wanted, the 2009 field hockey season was an impressive follow-up to Tufts' groundbreaking 2008 campaign. Despite falling 1-0 to the eventual national champion, Salisbury University, in the NCAA semifinals, the Jumbos have a lot to be proud of.
If you pay any attention to sports -- or to national news in general -- you know there was one story that dominated the headlines and the airwaves over Thanksgiving break: Tiger Woods got into a car crash that sent him to the hospital. If for some reason you were so busy eating turkey and stuffing that you managed not to hear, allow me to fill you in on the details.
The New Jersey Nets were expected to be bad, but no one in the Garden State was envisioning this: an 0-17 start to the 2009-10 season and a historic place among the worst of the NBA's worst teams.
If there was ever any doubt that the hockey team belongs in the NESCAC, perennially one of the toughest Div. III hockey conferences in the country, it has been erased now.
It's awards season in baseball, and that means it's time for me to suffer my annual bout of overwhelming frustration. The voters are notorious for basing their ballots on irrelevant factors, and through the first wave of awards, that certainly appeared to be the case again: Gold Gloves and Rookie of the Year honors were both a joke (I could write a column on those travesties alone).
With just one runner each from both the Tufts men's and women's cross country teams competing Saturday at the NCAA Div. III Championship, senior Jesse Faller and junior Amy Wilfert took full advantage of the chance to represent the Jumbos on the national stage. Both earned All-American status after finishing in the top 35.
Oftentimes, athletic programs schedule games against weaker opponents to start off the year, hoping simply to get back into the flow of competition and not to face a true test of their abilities. The Tufts women's basketball team is not one of those programs.
Last season, the men's basketball team had a down year, compiling a disappointing 9-15 overall record and finishing last in the NESCAC. As they opened this year's play over the weekend, the Jumbos again suffered some disappointment, leaving the Chuck Resler Classic Tournament in Rochester, New York without a victory despite two solid efforts.
Tufts' volleyball team has lived a Cinderella-like story all season long. But in the end, the slipper just didn't fit.
There were times this season, like when it was cruising past non-conference opponents or winning its conference championship, that the field hockey team seemed invincible. But not even the Jumbos could overcome the series of nightmarish scenarios they encountered over the weekend.
After the most successful season in its history, the women's swimming and diving team is looking to continue its outstanding successes this year, with five all-conference swimmers and one diver leading the way.
Cheap shots, low shots, head shots. None of these are hockey plays — and that's why they should all be penalties.
Looking back (NOVEMBER 15) | New England Patriots vs. Indianapolis Colts It was already billed as the best game of the year thus far, but once the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts actually hit the field Sunday night, they delivered on that sentiment.
Despite a valiant effort, the volleyball team dropped a four-set decision to heavily favored Hope College in the national quarterfinals yesterday afternoon in University Heights, Ohio. The setback ends the Jumbos' historic 2009 season with a mark of 31-5.
