Team absorbs loss, falls to 3-3

Despite a strong Tufts comeback in the second half, the field hockey came out on the losing end of 3-2 decision against Wesleyan on Wednesday afternoon. The loss at Wesleyan dropped the team's NESCAC record to an even 3-3.

After being down 2-0 early in the second half, the Jumbo offense overcame its deficit and tied the game with 18:41 left in regulation. The Cardinals persisted, however and with 3:38 remaining, centered a rebounding shot and put it in the net for the final score of the game.

Sophomore midfielder Erika Goodwin and freshman forward Tracy Rittenour scored both of the Jumbo goals, with sophomores midfielder Jeanne Grabowski and forward Lea Napolitano each notching assists. Rittenour's goal was the first of her collegiate career.

Rittenour's play on offense has been vital over the past few games for the Jumbos. She has narrowly missed goals in each of the last three games, although she has three assists on the season. In Thursday's 1-0 victory in strokes over Trinity, she maintained ball control for Tufts on offense for much of the game, giving the defense valuable time to rest.

Finding the back of the net in Wednesday's loss was bittersweet for Rittenour.

"I've really put a lot of pressure on myself, I'm glad to get it out of the way," Rittenour said. "Unfortunately, though, we didn't get the win. All these NESCAC games are just so tough."

The usually unyielding Jumbo defense seemed to give some slack before finally hunkering down in the final 25 minutes of play. It allowed a Wesleyan goal in the first half, and one at the start of the second.

"I think we were caught off-guard, we weren't playing our best," Rittenour said. "Those two weren't very good goals."

Coach Carol Rappoli agreed, explaining that the Jumbos didn't emerge like the team that had just won a grueling 1-0 victory over Trinity in strokes on Saturday.

"We didn't start the game with the same intensity that we finished it with," Rappoli said. "In our league that is very important. Our first half was just not played at the level we should be playing at."

On the brighter side for the Jumbos, senior co-captain midfielder Willow Hagge returned to the field after missing time with a persistent back injury. Hagge had been hurt, playing off an on through the injury, for over two weeks.

Wesleyan, in winning its second straight and improving its league record to 2-4, stopped Tufts from going two games over .500 in league play. Tufts sits in a tie with Colby for fifth place.

Next up for Tufts is a Saturday afternoon game against Williams, which is no pushover.

The Ephs have a 7-2 overall record, are 4-1 in the league, and find themselves in a tie with Bowdoin for third place. They boast one of the league's most powerful offenses, scoring, on average, over three goals a game. Their 29 season goals over nine games more than double Tufts' 13 goals in 10 contests this year. The Ephs' defense is also stingy, allowing only 13 scores all season.

"We have our report, and we'll work the rest of this week on how we can beat them," Rappoli said. "They have that prolific offense, obviously we will need to slow it down."

While the task is challenging, Tufts has its fair share of reasons to look forward to Saturday's game at Williams.

For one, Tufts has yet to lose back to back NESCAC games this year. Secondly, the Jumbos also have a strong defense, which held offensive powerhouse Amherst to one goal, and has a shutout which stood up through regulation and both overtime periods against Trinity.

"We have a good defense, we saw that on Saturday (against Trinity)," Rappoli said. "There can't be any questions. (The defense) has to come out and play hard right from the beginning."

Tufts also has a documented tendency to play well on weekend games, while faltering on the midweek contests. The Jumbos are 3-2 on weekends, yet 1-4 during the week.

"I don't know why we've had problems with the midweek games," Rittenour said. "It's not like we're not used to them, because in high school we only played midweek games."

Williams has won two in a row against the Jumbos, after the Jumbos won the contests in 1999 and 2000 in overtime.