While any supposed "home field" advantage offered by Cousens during last weekend's NESCAC Tournament failed to materialize, the Jumbos will have a shot to capitalize once again as the best in New England descend on the Hill this weekend.
The first round of the NCAA Tournament kicks off today, with four matches slated to take place inside Cousens Gym. Tufts, the No. 2 seed in the region, will take on Bridgewater State at 8:30 this evening.
The Jumbos earned an at-large bid in spite of losing to subsequent NESCAC champion Williams, which beat them by a score of 3-2 in the semifinals of the NESCAC championship. Nevertheless, the Jumbos went 28-3 overall on the season, standing as the top-ranked team in New England in the latest regional poll released on Nov. 5.
"We did what we needed to do in the regular season to earn an at-large bid should we not win our conference," said coach Cora Thompson, who garnered NESCAC Coach of the Year honors yesterday for her efforts in guiding the Jumbos to a perfect 10-0 regular season conference record. "It was always a conscious thought in our heads during the regular season -- 'let's make sure that we win all the games that we should.' We beat everybody in New England, and we wanted to win as many matches as we could so we would be in the best position to make the NCAAs."
"You can never be too confident," senior tri-captain Stacy Filocco added. "It's a very subjective process, and you never know how the committee is going to work it out. There are so many other factors besides who wins the league, and we're very excited. Coach let us know at about 4:30 in morning."
Tufts will take on Bridgewater State, who went a modest 12-23 -- with over half of those losses coming as 3-0 sweeps -- but still managed to claim the Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference (MASCAC) title. The Bears also lost all four matches they played against NESCAC opponents throughout the season. The winner of this first-round contest will advance to face the victor of the Wellesley and Endicott battle today.
The first match of the day will take place at 1 p.m. between Williams and Keene State, marking Williams' ninth appearance in the tournament. Last year, the Ephs were knocked out in the second round by league foe Amherst, but Williams returned the favor on Sunday beating the Lord Jeffs for the second consecutive time in the conference championship, thus denying Amherst an automatic bid to NCAAs.
The winner of the Ephs and Owls' match will be pitted against the winner of Springfield College and Maine Maritime. Springfield, the top seed in the region, stands at 31-4. Tufts split a pair of matches with the Pride over the course of the season and may have to face them down the line.
"Facing Williams or Springfield would be great," Thompson said. "We would love to get ahold of them. Any matches you drop, you want a second chance against that team, a do-over. And against both teams we lost 15-13 in the fifth set, which is pretty much a draw. We believe that in both matches there are things we could've done a little bit differently. A NESCAC matchup with Williams is always exciting, but we'd just be happy to get to the finals and compete against either one of them."
Tufts will look to its leaders, namely Filocco, junior Brogie Helgeson, and sophomores Dawson Joyce-Mendive and Caitlin Updike on the offensive side, who all average over two kills per set. Junior setter Dena Feiger and senior tri-captain Natalie Goldstein, who claimed conference Defensive Player of the Year honors yesterday, have ranked at the top of the conference in assists and digs respectively. Joyce-Mendive, Feiger and senior Kate Denniston were named to the All-NESCAC Team for their efforts during the fall campaign.
Today's NCAA Tournament berth is just the third in program history and the first since 2005, when the current senior class advanced to the Sweet Sixteen as freshmen.
"Our seniors have been here before, so there's not this mystique to the tournament, but there's still a mystery and unknown to what it's like to go to the Elite Eight," Thompson said. "The program's never done that, but we do have the opportunity to do that and come out on top. We can be that team. We haven't been there, but I think it'd be an amazing step, and one we have to work very hard for. Why not Tufts? Why not us?"
