Dealing with issues from chilling weather to bouts with swine flu, the Tufts men's crew team was nonetheless able to pull together at the fall season's premiere event and emerge from the weekend with positive results.
With only four teams competing in the Plansky Invitational at Williams on Saturday, the men's cross country team faced little opposition. The Jumbo's lack of competition was evident, as they came away from the meet with an easy win.
While tri-captains junior Julia Browne and senior Meghan McCooey were off winning their second straight Intercollegiate Tennis Association Small College National Championship in doubles in Mobile, Ala., the rest of the women's tennis team was taking care of business at the New England Women's Intercollegiate Tennis Tournament at Amherst, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges.
14 - Consecutive home games in which the field hockey team had allowed no more than one goal, including the postseason, prior to Saturday's match against No. 5 ranked Trinity. The Bantams defeated the Jumbos 2-1 in overtime, handing Tufts its first loss of the year and snapping the aforementioned streak.
Transportation issues marred Saturday's meet for the women's cross country team, but junior Amy Wilfert had no problem reaching the finish line, winning her second race of the season in the Plansky Invitational 5k race on Saturday.
In a jumbled week six that saw records fall, beasts tumble and Brett Favre stay true to his old game-winning self, a few perennial victors returned to their past dominance, convincingly establishing themselves as the teams to beaten in their respective conferences.
In the span of little over a year, tri-captains junior Julia Browne and senior Meghan McCooey of the women's tennis team have amassed quite a résumé as doubles partners.
In an instant, one of the great new rivalries in NESCAC field hockey turned on its head.
Try as it might, the Tufts volleyball team finally had to yield to one of life's inescapable truths: No one is perfect.
With the score 10-3 in favor of Trinity and time winding down, the Tufts football team looked like it would be able to pull off its second miraculous comeback in as many weeks and send the game into overtime.
Coming off their first win in two weeks, the men's soccer team fell just short of making it two in a row against the nationally ranked No. 15 Trinity Bantams, losing 1-0 on Saturday. The game marks the team's fifth one-goal loss of the season and drops the Jumbos' record to 0-5-1 in the NESCAC and 2-7-2 overall.
After romping to two straight 3-0 wins at home, the Tufts women's soccer team suffered flashbacks to the beginning of the year in its last home game of the regular season against the Trinity Bantams. In a grueling double-overtime matchup against the sixth place NESCAC foe, the fourth place Jumbos couldn't undo a 1-1 knot by the end of play.
The field hockey team has certainly benefited from a lull in its schedule since facing two nationally ranked opponents over its first three games of the season. Over the past month, the Jumbos have feasted on inferior, non-conference competition and NESCAC bottom-feeders, outscoring their last seven opponents by a whopping 35-3 margin. Beginning this weekend, however, birds of prey are migrating north towards Bello Field — the undefeated Trinity Bantams. Two of the nation's top five teams will battle for first place in the NESCAC when No. 3 Tufts hosts No. 5 Trinity tomorrow at noon on Bello Field. The Jumbos and Bantams are currently deadlocked atop the NESCAC standings with just three conference games left, meaning tomorrow's Senior Day tilt could go a long way towards deciding which squad ultimately claims the NESCAC regular season crown. Both teams are unbeaten in Div. III. "We've obviously seen a lot of success so far, and we're ready to be challenged a little bit more," junior defender Amanda Roberts said. "At this point in the season, we're starting to peak, and I think everything is starting to come together. That just makes it exciting to play teams that have also been successful this season." The red-hot Jumbos could probably not have picked a better time to meet their toughest challenge of the season. A squad that was having some trouble converting on a plethora of scoring chances at the beginning of the year has lit up the scoreboard over the past 10 days, tallying a total of 24 goals on 97 shots in recent runaway wins over Wellesley, Colby and Conn. College.
The Tufts football team scored its biggest victory of the still-young season with last week's 25-22 overtime Homecoming win against Bowdoin. Now, with Saturday's at-home matchup versus Trinity looming, it's up to Tufts to prove it's a real contender in a jumbled NESCAC. One week after sophomore kicker Adam Auerbach scored a game-winning field goal on Tufts' first possession in overtime, the Jumbos' offense will have to replicate its efforts against the Polar Bears in order to have a shot at dethroning the 3-0 Bantams. In a double-edged matchup between Trinity, the NESCAC's top scoring offense and best rush defense, and Tufts, the conference's second-best defense and top ground offense, something will have to give. The Jumbos' defensive unit is hoping it can lock down on Trinity senior Oliver Starnes, second in the NESCAC with 272 yards and a 4.7-yard per carry average, and force a mediocre Bantams pass offense into action. Last week, Tufts intercepted Bowdoin standout senior Oliver Kell once and held him to just 219 yards, and the Jumbos feel confident about their chances this Saturday should they force Starnes into the air. "We know that their running game is their strong point, so we want to take away the run first and get them to pass the ball," senior tri-captain and safety Tom Tassinari said. "Their quarterback is in his first year, so we want to get to him as much as possible, stack a few more guys in the box." Against Bowdoin, the Jumbos clamped down when they needed to, forcing a three-and-out late in the fourth quarter and setting up Auerbach's game-tying field goal. The defense also was stingy in overtime, holding the Polar Bears to zero net yards on seven plays. Yet Trinity has put up 33 points per contest and presents an entirely different challenge. "We still need to force more turnovers," Tassinari said. "Hopefully we can strip the ball or pick it [up] to put our offense in a good position." The Jumbos insist that they will approach this game the same way as they have approached their previous three. "We're really emphasizing coming out there and being excited for the game," Tassinari said. "But we're going to go out the same way we always do, aside from putting in a few new fronts and coverages. We know they'll take their shots deep, but we want to try and stay disciplined on our men. Last week we let up 22 points, and we thought that was too much for our defense." Tufts, riding a two-game winning streak, rushed for 266 yards last week, more than half of which came from junior Pat Bailey. With the clock winding down, senior quarterback Tom McManama scrambled for 10 yards on a second-and-nine, while classmate Darren Ferguson bolted into field goal range with another first down earlier in the drive. But this weekend Tufts faces a Trinity defense that will roll into the Ellis Oval having ceded only 1.7 yards per carry and 57.7 ground yards per game The Jumbos hope a potent ground game will open up much-needed passing lanes. "We've been preaching all week to be real physical up front," McManama said. "We're just going to go at these guys and be real aggressive and try to overpower. There's definitely some new passes that we think work well against them; we have a pretty balanced attack. It will be a good mix. "If we run it a lot, like we did last week, it will open stuff up down the field," he continued. "We did a pretty good job of that. Our first drive last week, we ran it the first 15 plays and then scored on a throw because we had run it so much, so we'll probably try to do that again." McManama has been quite efficient throughout the season, posting a 97.28 passing rating. Though his 40.3 completion percentage leaves much to be desired, he could have a field day against a Trinity pass defense that has ceded six scores and 222.3 yards per contest. But for the Tufts signal caller, individual efforts take a backseat to improving to 3-1. "The only goal is to win," McManama said. "That's it. We can't wait, it's a huge game. It's definitely a huge determinant of how our season will turn out." The Jumbos come into the contest with two intangible bonuses on their side — home field advantage and the revenge factor. Saturday's game takes place on Parents Weekend, giving Tufts a chance to play in front of a friendly crowd for the second straight week. The Jumbos are 11-2 in their last 13 games at the Ellis Oval. "Being home is great, the crowd was unbelievable last week," McManama said. "It definitely fires you up and should be a positive factor this week against Trinity." On Oct. 11 last year, the Jumbos fell 28-27 in Hartford, Conn. when Bantams senior quarterback Jeremy McGrath (LA '08) tied the game up with a touchdown pass with 25 seconds left and then won it with a six-yard score in overtime. The pain of that loss still resonates with many on the team. "All the upperclassmen, we definitely thought this week about the feeling we felt in overtime last year," Tassinari said. "We know how much that stunk, and it's definitely in the back of our heads. It was pretty terrible. You work so hard, only to lose on the last play." "It was definitely a heartbreaker," McManama added. "It's real tough to lose that way, especially when you're up with a minute left. But it's in the back in everyone's mind to not let that happen again. Everyone knows how big this game is." Offense and defense aside, the key to victory for the Jumbos will be matching the intensity of a squad with an aggregate record of 32-3 since 2005. "I'm pumped up, it's one of our biggest games in our eight-game schedule," Tassinari said. "Personally, I know I'm excited, and as a team, the excitement level has just been great. Playing at home is a lot nicer than taking that bus ride the morning of. It's a great feeling to play in front of that home crowd."
Though the Tufts women's soccer team began its NESCAC slate with losses to both Middlebury and Amherst, it knew that, while losing the games, it played tough against two of the best teams in the region — if not the country. The Jumbos remained confident that they could bounce back from the two losses and regain the form that has made them a perennial contender for the NESCAC crown. After Wednesday night's 3-0 drubbing of Conn. College, the team's fourth straight NESCAC victory, the conference throne may be closer than ever before for Tufts. "It was really important for us not to get down after the early losses," junior midfielder Geneva DeGregorio said. "From the beginning of the season, we've tried to take one game at a time and not look back." The Jumbos got off to a quick start against the Camels, with senior co-captain Whitney Hardy finishing a cross from senior forward Ali Maxwell just four minutes into the game. "Conn. College came out really hard and was hoping to have a chance," sophomore defender Cleo Hirsh said. "They haven't had much success in the NESCAC this season, and they were probably hoping to get out and get a win. So right away that one goal affected them a lot, because they realized that today wasn't going to be their day." Just over 10 minutes later, Hardy would strike again. After a miscue by Conn. College goalie Jenna Ross in the Camels' box, senior co-captain Cara Cadigan fed Hardy, who scored her fifth goal of the season. "Whitney's been doing a really good job of crashing the goals and putting herself in the right place at the right time," DeGregorio said. The Jumbos, however, would not be satisfied with sitting on a 2-0 lead and kept pressuring the Camels. Tufts outshot Conn. College 12-5 in the first half, and with a little over 27 minutes on the clock, junior defender Sarah Nolet would add to the lead. Off a corner kick from sophomore midfielder Lauren O'Connor, the 6-foot-tall Nolet, the team's best aerial threat, headed the ball past Ross to make the score 3-0. "We attacked from all points on the field: from the defense all the way forward," said Hirsch. "We were connecting well with our teammates, we had high energy on the ball, and we were being creative and taking chances." The second half featured no goals, though Conn. College put up more of an offense than it did in the first half. The Camels outshot the Jumbos 6-5 in the second 45 minutes, but senior goalie Kate Minnehan was up to the task, making four saves in the last half to preserve the score. The shutout was the fourth straight for Tufts in NESCAC play. The team has not allowed a goal to a conference opponent since the 52nd minute of the Sept. 19 match against Amherst — a span of over 400 minutes. On Wednesday, the defense once again was superb, disrupting Conn. College's flow of attack and preventing the Camels from getting any real chances on net. "We've been keeping our shape really well," Hirsch said. "If someone goes in to make a tackle and isn't successful, there's always someone backing them up. There's just a lot of support all over the defensive line, so there are no holes." The victory also marked Tufts' tenth consecutive win over Conn. College, five of which have been shutouts. Though Tufts knows it played well against the Camels, who are still winless in NESCAC competition at 0-6, it will have to continue to improve in anticipation of Saturday's match-up with Trinity College. The Jumbos will try to build on their conference winning record and continue their shutout streak on Saturday against a team that defeated them 2-1 last year. The Bantams come into the game with a 3-3-2 record (2-3-1 in NESCAC) and are two spots below Tufts in the conference standings. A win for Trinity would go a long way toward securing a first-round home game in the conference tournament, while a win for Tufts would move the Jumbos closer to the only teams that have scored on them in conference play: Middlebury and Amherst. "Trinity is always a strong opponent, but we're looking forward to redeeming ourselves for last year's loss," DeGregorio said.
After losing a heartbreaker to NESCAC rival Colby on Homecoming weekend, the men's soccer team was in need of a strong performance in Tuesday's non-conference matchup with UMass-Dartmouth to bring some positive energy back to the team. Though the game had no bearing on their postseason chances, the Jumbos played some of their most cohesive soccer of the year, improving to 2-6-2 (0-4-1) with a 1-0 victory in overtime.
Thanks to a few superhuman efforts from junior quad-captain quarterback Alex Vetras and freshman linebacker Sam Clark, Amherst improved to 3-0 on Saturday, its best start since 2004, after taking a convincing 20-10 win over Middlebury.
In Major League Baseball's compact postseason, heroics are instantly hallowed and mistakes are immediately magnified. That applies not only to the players who hit clutch home runs or commit embarrassing errors, but also to the fans who channel their inner Bartman and — sometimes most publicly — the umpires who preside over it all.
It wasn't a nail-biter, but excitement was in the air last night as the field hockey team defeated Conn. College 8-1 and junior forward Tamara Brown broke her second record of the week, taking the title for most career goals scored in the program's history. The dominating victory boosted the Jumbos' current record to 10-0 and 6-0 in the NESCAC.
