While the lacrosse team's quest for a conference title and national championship run is still alive and well, the dream of an undefeated season came to an end on Wednesday in the form of an 8-5 loss to conference foe Bowdoin. The Jumbos' first loss of the year drops the team to 5-1 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
The Polar Bears shut down the high powered Jumbos attack throughout the game, playing solid team defense to hold the Jumbos to just two goals in the entire second half. For Bowdoin, the win means a share of the conference lead with Bates and Middlebury, who are also undefeated in NESCAC competition. Tufts drops to a tie for second with Amherst at 2-1.
No team was able to gain a clear advantage in the first half. As they have all season, the Jumbos jumped out to an early lead, taking a 3-1 advantage out of the first quarter. Even with the lead, Tufts was not demonstrating the solid execution that had led the team to a 5-0 record.
Several players said that from the beginning of the game, the team was flat. The game was the team's first on the road, excluding a trip to Hofstra to play Nassau Community College in an exhibition on Mar. 23.
"I think we came out soft on the road," senior tri-captain and midfielder Devin Clark said. "It was our first real road game, and we didn't show up."
Junior midfielder Mike O'Brien agreed.
"We came out cold off the bus, and they were ready," O'Brien said. "We definitely were flat and it carried through the whole game."
Tufts coach Michael Daly took the fault for his team's flat play.
"There is no excuse for not being ready to play," Daly said. "Simply put, the team was not ready to play and that is on me. It is my job to make sure we are ready to play."
Tufts scored again in the second quarter, but the Polar Bears tacked on two more goals of their own. Tufts held a 4-3 lead heading into halftime.
In the third quarter, the Polar Bears took advantage of Tufts' uncharacteristically sloppy play and took control of the game. Bowdoin midfielder Ryan Hurd scored two goals in the quarter, the first with 12:28 left in the quarter and the second with 3:37 left, and the Polar Bears took a one goal lead into the fourth.
Hurd's second goal marked the first time the Jumbos had been behind in any game all season.
"I think its different playing from behind," Clarke said. "I don't know if we were pressing too much or what, but they came out in the third quarter and we never recovered."
"It definitely threw us off a little," O'Brien said. "It's a little different playing from behind. Offensively, we started to panic. The mentality became, 'we need to get a goal right now or we're going to lose this game.'"
The offense had failed to find it's rhythm throughout the game, and Bowdoin's increased defensive pressure, combined with what may have been some shellshock for the Jumbos at having to play from a deficit, resulted in a shutdown of Tufts' attack.
"Overall, we never got in a rhythm," O'Brien said. "Bowdoin played really good team defense, and we were dropping passes. Bowdoin just wanted it more."
Two Polar Bear goals early in the quarter increased the lead to 7-4. Clarke scored the Jumbos' only second half goal with 10:39 to go in the game, cutting the deficit to two, but the team failed to move any closer than that.
Daly credited Bowdoin's ability to execute throughout the game.
"We were prepared for everything Bowdoin had," Daly said. "There were no surprises. They wanted to win more than we did. Up or down, Bowdoin outworked us."
Going into the game, Tufts had been ranked No. 3 in the nation, behind Salisbury and Nazareth, but that number will take a hit when the next polls are released.
The Bowdoin loss is tough for the team to stomach, particularly since the Polar Bears are a conference foe, but the Jumbos say they've moved on and are already looking to the future, specifically to tomorrow's game at Williams.
"As a team, we have a lot of things to work on," Clarke said. "It's one league game; as long as we go on from here we'll be fine."
If playing on the road did present a problem for the Jumbos, its one that they'll have to address by tomorrow.
"We have to get off the bus right away, get that intensity right away," O'Brien said. "We have to want it more."
Daly continued to be the model of consistent confidence in his players and his team.
"We are not panicked or worried, and we are not changing anything right now," Daly said. "We have complete confidence in ourselves and our repetition of that confidence in practice is what we are hanging our hats on."
