On Saturday, the Jumbos will meet Bates once again for their fourth NESCAC game of the season. Joining the two teams on the field will be the ghosts of two NESCAC Tournament games and an NCAA Regionals game all decided by a single goal.
"Between the history we have with them and the fact that it is a NESCAC game, we are going to be charged up," sophomore goalkeeper Kate Minnehan said.
The Jumbos entered last year's NESCAC Tournament seeded second after losing just one conference game all season. Their first-round opponents were the defending champion Bobcats, who entered the tournament as the seventh seed, having struggled their way to a 4-4 conference mark.
But Tufts squandered an opportunity to win its second NESCAC title, losing a 2-1 heartbreaker in overtime. The loss denied the Jumbos an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, and marked a disappointing end for a program that had reached the Final Four in 2004 and '05.
The game marked the second consecutive season that Bates had eliminated the Jumbos in the NESCAC Tournament. In 2005, the Bobcats won their only conference title when they stunned top-ranked Tufts 2-1 in overtime of the championship game. But the Jumbos exacted revenge, knocking Bates out of the NCAA Tournament with a 1-0 victory in the second round.
Thus the three one-goal games that define the Bates-Tufts rivalry over the past two years.
Tufts enters Saturday's rematch on a four-game winning streak, coming back strong after a 2-0 midweek loss to Wheaton on Sept. 11. In the following game, a Saturday matchup with nationally ranked Middlebury, the Jumbos stole a 2-1 victory in double overtime and haven't looked back since.
Now ranked 18th in the nation, the team followed with wins over Carthage, Amherst, and Babson, and allowed only two goals over the course of the four-game hot streak.
It has been a different story for the Bobcats, who have struggled mightily since a 2-0 victory over non-conference Husson to start the season. Since then, Bates has gone 0-5, including a string of deflating conference losses to Amherst, Bowdoin, Conn. College and Trinity over the past two weeks. Still, Tufts refuses to take the Bobcats for granted.
"I definitely think that we are confident, and my hope is that we are not overconfident," coach Martha Whiting said. "Any time you go into a NESCAC game, you have to be careful. I know Bates will be hungry for a win, and since we have been playing well, they will be out to get us."
The Jumbos are led offensively this seasonby sophomore standout Cara Cadigan, whose goal and assist in Tuesday's showdown with Babson vaulted her to the top of the NESCAC with 14 points on the season. The goal was part of a high-energy four-goal attack from the Tufts squad, the Jumbos' highest offensive output of the season.
That scoring prowess stands in stark contrast to the offensive record of the Bobcats, who have scored only three time in six games, the worst mark in the league.
"[Tufts] scores a lot of goals, and frankly, we don't," Bates coach Jim Murphy said. "We're going to have our hands full, that's for sure."
In the latest chapter in the Jumbo-Bobcat rivalry, Tufts clearly enters as the superior team and Bates knows it will have to put up a strong performance if it wants another upset.
"We've had a great rivalry with Tufts over the years," Murphy said. "They're highly skilled, they play unselfishly, they play aggressively, and to me they are one of the premier teams in the NESCAC and in New England, for that matter. We're going to have to play almost perfect soccer to beat them."
