Men's Soccer Season Preview | Former Div. I coach looks to reverse dismal fortunes
September 8To say the men's soccer team's 2009 season was a disappointment would be a massive understatement.
To say the men's soccer team's 2009 season was a disappointment would be a massive understatement.
Two months ago, football fans around the country debated whether the Big East would disappear with the seemingly inevitable creation of the "super-conferences."
If the incoming freshman class was frustrated to have missed out on the spectacle of the men's lacrosse team's national championship last spring, it needn't be worried.
The past school year was arguably the most exciting in recent memory for Tufts athletics and, ever since the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings were released at the end of June, it seems that recognition of the Jumbos' success has spread throughout the nation.
Welcome to the NESCAC, the strongest Div. III conference in the country and home to national powerhouses across the board. The 11 members of the New England Small College Athletic Conference, including Tufts, took a combined six 2009-10 national championships: Tufts in men's lacrosse, Williams in women's tennis and crew, Trinity in men's squash, Amherst in women's hockey and Middlebury in men's tennis. In addition, NESCAC schools took four of the top six spots in the final Directors' Cup standings: Williams (1st), Amherst (2nd), Middlebury (4th) and Tufts (6th). Any Div. III athletic knowledge starts and ends with the NESCAC; so without further ado, the Daily brings you a brief look at the 10 other schools that share a conference with the Jumbos.
Baseball is a business and, like in all other businesses, the goal is to make money.
10. Watching games won't cost you a cent. You may need to take out a loan to attend a Yankees game, but you can cheer on your classmates for free at fields across Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus.
The AFC East has recently belonged to the New England Patriots. But with a fortuitous run to the conference championship and an overly active off-season profiled by HBO's television miniseries "Hard Knocks," the New York Jets have become division favorites as well as the most interesting team in the National Football League.
In its final race of the season, the women's crew novice eight boat took first place and a gold medal at the ECAC National Invitational Championships on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass. on May 9.
A school record for victories, a one-loss season and the No. 2 seed in the conference — all of these things had already been achieved by the men's lacrosse team as it headed into the NESCAC Tournament. But it still had one final acknowledgement missing from its résumé: a NESCAC title. That is, until May 9.
The baseball team had every excuse if it lost the NESCAC championship game two weeks ago. The Jumbos had completed a rain-suspended game that was resumed at 9 a.m. that day, and despite not having lost in the double-elimination tournament, Tufts was forced to take part in a one-game championship playoff against Bowdoin — a team that had already fallen once in the tournament — because of the change in schedule.
Last year, the softball team graduated eight seniors, including seven everyday players and one of its two starting pitchers. But the Jumbos refused to write this season off as a rebuilding year, and despite an early exit from the NESCAC Tournament, they still earned a NESCAC East regular-season crown and have a lot to look forward to in the years to come.
Rising sophomore Phil Teves is a self-proclaimed sports hater. Ask him about almost any sport, from baseball to football, and he will have an opinion about just how boring and pointless it is. But there is one sporting event that even Teves cannot ignore: the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
It was a season of ups and downs for the women's lacrosse team.
The men's track and field team wrapped up a successful season with strong performances at the Open New England, ECAC and IC4A Championships. Now it looks forward to sending three seniors to the NCAA Championships.
I came to Tufts in the fall of 2006; granted, I didn't travel very far from my home in Marblehead, Mass., but it was still new for me.
Before getting its "Last Chance" at qualifying for NCAAs, the women's track and field team had some business to take care of at ECACs and Open New Englands.
Male Athlete of the Year: Scott Barchard, Hockey After shattering the program's saves record in his freshman year, Scott Barchard this year returned as a sophomore as one of the best goalies in the nation. Before winter break, Barchard led Tufts to a 5-2 record, during which he set a school record with 63 saves against Saint Anselm College in a 4-3 win that earned him NESCAC Player of the Week. He continued his dominant play throughout the season to lead all NCAA Div. III goalies with a .939 save percentage. The mark is all the more impressive given that he was bombarded with 1,050 shots, a couple hundred more than any other goalie. No goalie on record in New England Div. III history has made more saves in a single season.