Today marks a full month since the Tufts volleyball team last played a match on its home court, so it would be understandable if the team had grown a little homesick and travel-weary. Fortunately for the Jumbos, they are finally coming home. The NESCAC women's volleyball tournament will kick off tonight and, for the second year in a row, Tufts is playing host.
Liverpool has long been revered as one of the great clubs in soccer, with 18 league titles and five European cups — tops of any English team. But Liverpool has not won the English Premier League or its predecessor — the Football League First Division — since the 1989-90 season, a period that has culminated in years of underachieving in the Premier League.
Sometimes a team just needs to cut its losses and start preparing for a new season. For the Tufts men's soccer team, that statement is certainly true.
I have always been one to hold a grudge. And to be honest, I'm sort of proud of it. I think it shows a strong sense of determination and character.
It happens nearly every year like clockwork.
Alex Rodriguez and the New York Yankees shook off the Philadelphia Phillies with ease last night, beating them 7-3 to win the World Series in six games. It was the Yankees' first championship in nine years but their 27th overall, a major league record.
Thanks to a Williams upset effort this past weekend, the second-seeded Tufts field hockey team will play against the fifth-seeded Ephs on Saturday in the NESCAC Tournament semifinals, hosted by top-seeded Trinity. But the Jumbos hope to avoid being the second straight powerhouse victim for Williams as they look to earn a berth in Sunday's final.
When the Tufts women's soccer team takes to Cole Field in Williamstown on Saturday in its NESCAC semifinal matchup, it will have to contend with the two-time defending NESCAC champion Williams Ephs. But if you ask the Jumbos, they are relishing the opportunity to get a second look at the undefeated and nationally ranked No. 2 Ephs (15-0-0, 9-0-0 NESCAC), particularly after the result from the last time the teams met.
After an impressive 25-17 upset of the No. 2 seed Western Connecticut State University, the No. 7 seed men's rugby team has advanced to the Div. III New England round of four with a championship in sight. The Jumbo ruggers, who finished the season with a 5-1 record, will face Keene State in their semifinal match this Saturday with the hopes of making it to the finals. If they do so, they will have an opportunity not only to win the championship, but also to potentially exact revenge on the team that handed them their only loss on the season: UMaine Farmington (UMF). "If we win this Saturday, we go to the New England Championship game against the winner of the Bryant versus UMaine Farmington," junior starting forward Andrew Ward said. "We're hoping to get a rematch against UMF in the finals." The New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) North Conference Champions in the fall of 2008, the Jumbo ruggers were usurped by UMaine Farmington in this fall's North Conference Championship. UMaine Farmington was a new addition to the division this year after coming down from Div. II but showed its prowess quickly in taking care of the Tufts squad to win the conference title. "Losing the conference championship to UMF was a letdown because we won our conference last year. But then again, UMF is a good team, and they also won their conference last year, so at least we lost to someone good," Ward said. "But unlike last year, we came into these playoffs as an under-seeded team and won. Last year, we lost [in the] first round of the playoffs to Plymouth State, the reigning national champions. "This was the first playoff game Tufts Rugby has won since anyone at Tufts currently has been playing rugby, so that was bloody sweet and very emotional to everyone," he continued. The team has a constituency of about 40, though about 10 upperclassmen are out do to injuries. Luckily, the team has worked hard to recruit and has gained 15 or so freshmen. The nature of the sport allows athletic players to adapt quickly, which has allowed the team to burgeon despite injuries and other obstacles. "Many of the people who come out to play rugby are ex-cross country, football, track, water polo, soccer players, fencers and wrestlers," Ward said. "It's a sport that anyone can learn how to play quickly, just so long as they don't mind hitting and getting hit. The majority of the starting players on our team never played before high school." Of course, the Keene State game is the No. 1 priority for the ruggers. Progressing from a losing season three years ago to a conference title last season, the rugby team does not plan on letting anything get between it and a NERFU Championship. "Keene State? We're going to beat the bloody snot out of them," Ward said. "We're going inside of ‘em, we're going outside of ‘em — inside of ‘em, outside of ‘em — and when we get them on the run once, we're going to keep ‘em on the run. We're gonna get ‘em on the run, we're gonna go, go, go, go! And we aren't going to stop until we go over that goal line!"
The World Series heads back to the Bronx tonight, with the New York Yankees leading the Philadelphia Phillies three games to two after the Phillies staved off a valiant Pinstripes comeback in Game 5 to avoid elimination.
The men's cross country team continued its gradual ascent into the ranks of the NESCAC elite on Sunday, taking third at the championships at Wickham Park in Manchester, Conn. thanks in large part to the efforts of senior Jesse Faller.
The Tufts club water polo team is at it again. Having placed third at the Div. III Club Nationals for the past three consecutive years, the team knows that it has a chance to do some damage at the Club Nationals this upcoming weekend at Bowdoin.
Participating in two significant regattas this past weekend — the co-ed Erwin Schell Trophy at MIT and the women's Victorian Urn at Harvard — the nationally ranked No. 13 Tufts sailing team was fortunate that the races took place in the familiar waters of the Charles River.
6 Number of players selected in the first round of the 2006 NBA draft who signed extensions by the Monday deadline. The number is the lowest of any draft class in NBA history, one less than the seven extensions signed by the class of 2005. It looked like there would only be three players who got extensions — Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge of the Portland Trail Blazers and Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors — before Renaldo Balkman, Thabo Sefolosha and Rajon Rondo inked new deals before Monday.
After spending nearly a month on the road facing stiff NESCAC opposition, the Tufts volleyball team is finally coming home after clinching its second consecutive regular-season NESCAC championship.
Sometimes in cross country, two seconds make all the difference in the world.
In hockey, there's just something about the goalie mask that lends itself to a very different personality than that of any other position on the ice.
