After three consecutive victories, the women's soccer team came through again yesterday afternoon, this time in grand fashion against non-conference foe Babson.
While the team may have relied on sophomore sensation Cara Cadigan to finish in earlier games this season, on Tuesday the Jumbo squad put together a well-distributed attack to take down the Beavers, though the sophomore did contribute a goal and an assist to rise to the top of the NESCAC points list. The team's midfielders and forwards displayed excellent team passing and shooting to bury four goals in the Babson net for a final score of 4-1.
After struggling again to find intensity early in the midweek game, Tufts eventually settled down.
"I think initially we played to the level of our opponent, but once we got going we stepped it up, and I was very happy with the effort and the way we kept fighting," coach Martha Whiting said. "We never stopped playing."
"We came out a little bit flat-footed and didn't have as much intensity in the first half," senior co-captain Martha Furtek added. "But Coach told us at halftime that we had to step it up, and we played more composed in the second half."
Despite the early lack of energy and focus, Tufts managed to score twice in the first half. Cadigan struck early, knocking one in in the second minute thanks to a perfect diagonal ball from senior Rebecca Abbott that allowed her to get behind the defense.
"Babson was trying an offside trap for a lot of the game, but [the forwards] split their defense pretty well," sophomore goalkeeper Kate Minnehan said.
Cadigan later fed classmate Jesslyn Jamison in the 38th minute, threading a low cross pass which Jamison finished on the far post.
The goal and assist in yesterday's game bump Cadigan's team-leading point total even higher, and she now sits atop the NESCAC standings with 14 points. She has tallied six goals this year for Tufts, and her pass to Jamison raised her assist total to two. Cadigan also leads the league's points-per-game standings by a landslide with an untouchable average of 2.33 points per game.
Tufts amped up its play in the second half and after an array of shots, Furtek connected on a rocket from 20 yards out that hit the crossbar and went in to put the Jumbos ahead by three. Though Furtek hit the shot, she gave most of the credit to an instrumental pass from sophomore Ali Maxwell.
"Ali worked hard to win the ball and beat a couple players," Furtek said. "Then she got it off to me outside the 18."
Babson got on the board in the 72nd minute with a finish by Beaver sophomore Sam Bartman off of a corner kick. But the Jumbos responded shortly thereafter, with Maxwell once again making her presence felt as she beat a defender and then launched a laser shot to connect for her first goal of the season.
"Ali has been so close so many times," Whiting said. "It was nice to see her get one today."
The sophomores stole the spotlight in terms of scoring, as three of the four goals came off the feet of second-year Jumbos. With four goals on the day, the Jumbos doubled their previous mark for most goals in a game this season. And with the high offensive output, the team is happy to see its hard work coming to fruition.
"I think people were working off the ball really well and getting open," Furtek said. "It's something we have been working hard on in practice, and it definitely paid off."
Whiting was very happy not only with the performance of her starters, but also with the solid effort displayed by the substitutes.
"We got to play a lot of players today," Whiting said. "Everyone contributed and we put forth a very solid team effort."
"I think we are feeling pretty good," Furtek added. "It's nice to finally win a game with a little bit of a cushion and be able to get more people involved."
The Jumbos are hoping to ride the momentum of their four-game winning streak to Maine this weekend, where the will take on NESCAC rival Bates.
