It was a cold and rainy day out on Bello Field. The conditions were fitting for the women's lacrosse team as they dropped a crucial game to Williams, 11-4.
"We played well in the first half and then let down in the second. We weren't playing as tight on defense as we usually do and we didn't have our usual drive to get the ball in the net," said senior co-captain Megan Doughty.
The lack of aggressiveness was partially due to the fact that the team tried to be too careful with the ball.
"We've been working on being patient with the ball on attack so we don't have as many turnovers," Doughty said. "However, we need to make sure to continue attacking the goal even when slowing down the ball."
The Jumbos hurt their chances of earning home field advantage in the NESCAC tournament, falling to sixth place in the conference with a 3-4 conference record and 7-5 overall record.
"We came out with lots of confidence," said senior co-captain Jen Griffin. "I thought we played a really good first half."
Williams, which had been tied with Tufts for fifth heading into the game, gained the upper hand and now with a win will likely earn home field advantage. They are 9-3 overall and 4-3 in NESCAC play.
Despite what the score may indicate, the game was close most of the way. The Ephs leapt out to a 2-0 lead early, but the Jumbos responded to tie the game on a goal by sophomore Lauren Murphy with eight minutes to play.
Junior Dena Miller scored on a penalty shot to give the Jumbos three goals, but that happened after Williams senior tri-captain Tara Boyd scored two goals to put the Ephs up 4-3.
"This was odd because we're usually a second half team," Griffin said. "The defense was having trouble and the attack was making bad decisions."
Coming out of the half the Jumbos tried to even things up. Senior co-captain Megan Doughty tied the score at four with 16 minutes to play.
From then, the Jumbos were unable to score for the rest of the game. They were outscored 7-1 in the second half. It wasn't the first time Tufts had trouble in the second half. Last weekend at Colby, they gave up four straight goals in the final twenty minutes to lose 9-8 and in early April, the team surrendered a one goal lead to Bowdoin in the final 10 minutes to lose 7-6.
The Williams rally started with three goals scored in a little over two minutes. With the score 7-4, the Ephs took control. A stifling defense and a hot goalie (junior Meghan Dwyer had 13 saves) kept the Jumbos off the scoreboard.
Boyd had five goals and three assists to lead both categories. Williams sophomore Kaylan Tildsley also had a hat trick.
No Tufts player scored more than a single goal. The scorers were Doughty, Murphy, junior Meredith Harris and Miller. Senior Dana Panzer had 11 saves in goal.
This Wednesday the Jumbos will take on Amherst at home, in one of their toughest matches of the season. The Lord Jeffs are ranked third in the nation by multiple polls, including the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association, Inside Lacrosse, and Laxpower.com. The Jumbos hope to play more like they did last Wednesday, when they scored 11 goals to defeat Wesleyan while sticking to a game plan of strict ball control on offense.
"We play Amherst Wednesday and they'll be a big challenge," Griffin said. "If we work hard to create scoring opportunities for ourselves and keep their offense from getting inside our zone defense I feel extremely confident that we will beat them."
