As the Nor'easter caused by Hurricane Wilma walloped New England on Tuesday, the men's soccer team faced a rare occurrence in its sport: its scheduled NESCAC game against Wesleyan was postponed due to the weather.
Instead of playing its most important match of the year, as far as playoffs were concerned, on Tuesday, the team was forced to play Wednesday on a water-logged field in Middletown, Conn.
"The field was terrible; probably the worst field we've played on," senior tri-captain Mike Guigli said. "It was so torn up; it was almost like playing on a beach. It was basically like the tailgating field after homecoming."
Teams often falter under similar conditions, but Tufts managed to grind out a crucial NESCAC victory, 2-0, over the Cardinals. The win put the Jumbos in position to possibly secure a home game in the first round of the playoffs with a win over Connecticut College on Saturday.
"This was a really big win for us," said Guigli, who scored the first of Tufts' two goals on Wednesday. "The extra day off came as a surprise, but we played with a lot of heart to get a win in bad conditions like that. The game came down to who wanted it more. They came out flat and we played well."
Guigli scored his goal just under 20 minutes into the first half from 35 yards out. This first goal of the match put the Jumbos ahead almost by mistake.
"[The goal] wasn't really meant to even be a shot, it was a cross," Guigli said. "The wind was blowing really hard and when I crossed the ball, the wind carried it up and through the goalie's hands."
Junior striker Mattia Chason added an insurance goal for the Jumbos with just short of 10 minutes remaining in the match. Chason broke free and beat Wesleyan goalie Jamie Hiteshew one-on-one to net his team-leading eighth goal of the season.
The Tufts defense, along with freshman keeper Brian Dulmolvits, managed to keep Wesleyan scoreless despite the sloppy conditions. Dulmolvits came away with his fourth shutout of the year helping to bring Tufts' record to 5-6-2 overall and an even 4-4 in the league.
The Jumbo victory snapped the Cardinals' seven-game unbeaten streak and dropped Wesleyan to 6-3-3 (3-3-2 NESCAC) on the season. The Cardinals will travel to Bowdoin on Saturday to wrap up their season against the league's second place team. Tufts, on the other hand, will travel to New London to take on the Connecticut College Camels, the second worst team in the NESCAC.
If history has any bearing on the upcoming matchup, the Jumbos should be feeling optimistic. Tufts has beaten Connecticut College in the two teams' previous five meetings by a combined score of 12-2. The Camels are 1-7 in the NESCAC this year with their only win coming to last place Trinity in a 1-0 result on Oct. 19. Their opponents have outscored them 24-7 this season.
Though the odds are stacked in their favor, Guigli and the Jumbos are not taking this game lightly.
"In the past, Connecticut College hasn't had the strongest teams, but we haven't gotten the scouting report from our coach yet," Guigli said. "We're going to go into this game just like any other game. It's very important that we win."
This game will wrap up the regular-season schedule for the Jumbos. With a win, coach Ralph Ferrigno's young squad would end up 6-6-2 with a 5-4 winning record in the competitive NESCAC. The team will hardly have time to think about its final record after Saturday's game, however, as the playoffs begin on Sunday. Location will be determined by the outcomes of several Saturday games.
