The men's soccer team will be looking for revenge today at Kraft Field when it takes on the Amherst Lord Jeffs in the first round of the first-ever NESCAC Tournament. Tufts qualified for the tournament by defeating the Connecticut College Camels 1-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday's win gave the Jumbos a final regular season record of 8-4-2, with a 4-3-2 record in the always-competitive NESCAC. While last season's regular season record (9-4-1) was slightly better, the Jumbos faced every team in the conference this year, one of the in Division III this season. Against a partial slate of conference foes last season, the Jumbos only managed a record of 3-4-1.
The regular season may be over, but the playoffs will provide at least one chance to avenge a loss. "The guys have reasonable expectations for this game," coach Pat Marino said. "Our confidence has been building as the year has gone on."
Saturday's game was scoreless until sophomore forward Matt MacGregor notched his seventh goal of the year off of a long pass from junior back Mike Prindiville, who booted a long free kick from deep in the Tufts zone. MacGregor corralled it before slipping it past Connecticut College keeper Zach Roth. The assist was Prindiville's fourth of the season.
"Mike's been a steady center back," Marino said. "He's been instrumental in organizing that group all season. We've all been impressed by his work ethic and attitude."
Jumbo keeper, senior Steve McDermid, made four saves en route to his fourth shutout of the season, as Tufts out shot the Camels 7-4. MacGregor's goal was his seventh of the season, and it moved his season point total to 21, fourth best in the NESCAC.
Amherst will visit Medford for the second time this season on Saturday, after taking a 2-0 decision on the strength of two goals from junior David Michener in the teams' first meeting. The Jumbos were coming off of a disappointing tie against last-place Colby, and the loss to the Lord Jeffs dropped Tufts to 0-1-2 in the NESCAC. "We've really only played one bad game all year, and that was Amherst," coach Ralph Ferrigno said.
"We could have performed better," sophomore back Rupak Datta agreed. "We came back in the second half and had a lot of good chances that we weren't able to take advantage of."
Since that loss, Tufts is 6-3, and 4-2 in the NESCAC. One of those losses came in a hard-fought game against the undefeated and number-one seed Williams Ephmen in a game that saw Williams trail for the first time this season.
"We're a young team, so improvement was inevitable," Marino said. "The team's confidence both as a group and individually has improved. Injuries and suspensions have forced us to play a lot of younger guys, and they have been forced to play in some tough situations. If we run into trouble against Amherst, then we should have plenty of options."
The Lord Jeffs are 3-4-1 since that game against Tufts, and just managed to squeak into the playoffs on the strength of a 3-0 win over Trinity. The Amherst offense is led by freshman Franklin Perry who is tied for seventh in NESCAC scoring with Jumbo senior David Drucker, at 17 points. Goalkeeper Bill Orum is fifth in the NESCAC with a 1.01 GAA, and, like Jumbo keeper Steve McDermid, has four shutouts.
This is the first ever NESCAC Tournament, and the winner will receive an automatic bid in the Division III NCAA Tournament. The Jumbos did not qualify for the NCAA Tournament last season, but reached the ECAC semi-finals with a 2-1 victory over Bates. There, they dropped a 3-1 decision to Middlebury to end the season.
All of the first round games will be played starting at 1 p.m. today. Connecticut College, which ended up with the number-seven seed in the tournament, will play number-two Bowdoin in New Brunswick, while number-six seed Wesleyan will play at number-three Middlebury. Williams received a bye in the first round, and will play the lowest remaining seed on Saturday in Williamstown.
The winner of that game will play the winner of the two highest seeded of today's winners on Sunday, also in Williamstown. Against the six other teams in the tournament, Tufts is only 2-3-1, so the path to the NESCAC title and the automatic bid will likely require that Tufts avenge more than one regular season loss.
