After romping to two straight 3-0 wins at home, the Tufts women's soccer team suffered flashbacks to the beginning of the year in its last home game of the regular season against the Trinity Bantams. In a grueling double-overtime matchup against the sixth place NESCAC foe, the fourth place Jumbos couldn't undo a 1-1 knot by the end of play.
"We're frustrated that the score didn't really reflect how well we played," junior defender Sarah Nolet said.
"We're obviously not thrilled about the tie, but we're all pleased with our performance as a team," sophomore midfielder Alix Michael said. "No one was upset about how we played, just the result."
During the extended time on Saturday afternoon, the Jumbos were unable to take advantage of several opportunities, resulting in their first conference tie. The Jumbos had been clicking offensively in their last contests, but, as in their first few matches of the season, they seemed unable to exploit key chances to score.
Late in the game and into overtime, Tufts seniors Ali Maxwell and Fanna Gamal tried to make the most of their Seniors' Day game, each nearly scoring on two separate occasions.
"We had a lot of opportunities to score, but in the heat of the moment, things happen, and that's part of the game," Michael said. "The better team doesn't necessarily always win."
After an uneventful start for both teams, the game remained scoreless at halftime. Though the Jumbos had more chances to get on the board, with five attempted shots as opposed to the Bantams' singular attempt, neither team capitalized on its opportunities.
The Jumbos had a chance to grab a lead in the middle of the first half when Trinity keeper Emily Weedon accidentally diverted the ball to Tufts senior forward Jesslyn Jamison, but she fired the ball over the net. With about a minute left in the half, the Jumbos had another opportunity thanks to junior forward Bailey Morgan, but her shot bumped off the far post.
The Bantams came into the second half on fire, finding the back of the net in the 53rd minute on just their second attempt of the game. On an assist from sophomore Leigh Howard, Trinity sophomore Jenny Ley shot the ball past Tufts keeper Kate Minnehan for Ley's fifth goal of the season.
"They didn't get a lot of opportunities, but they capitalized on them," Michael said.
Senior co-captain Whitney Hardy led the Jumbos' offense with nine attempted shots on the goal, finally connecting in the 63rd minute for Tufts' only goal after an assist from fellow senior co-captain Cara Cadigan.
The Jumbos kept up with Hardy's strong offensive energy as they tallied 27 attempted shots throughout the game in comparison to the Bantams' 10. High energy has been an important component of the Jumbos' season thus far, and has definitely worked in their favor.
"We had a rough start to the season and needed to go back to the basics of why we want to play. That made it easier to remember why we love the game, and that passion comes through on the field," Nolet said.
Despite their slower offense, the Bantams were able to stay in the game. The Tufts team blamed bad luck for Trinity's parity.
"We had some good chances that just hit the post or had an unlucky bounce," Nolet said. "It wasn't necessarily [Trinity], we just didn't get as lucky as we should have been."
The tie marked the end of the Tufts' conference game win streak at four and brought to a close a four-game home stand for the Jumbos, who play the last three games of their season on the road, starting with Salem State on Wednesday. Despite the tie, the Jumbos are still 4-2-1 in NESCAC games and 6-4-1 in the regular season.
Tufts has two more NESCAC games: first against the Williams Ephs, who are 7-0-0 in conference games, followed by a regular season-ending match-up with the Bowdoin Polar Bears, who are 3-4-0. The Jumbos will look to maintain their fourth-seed standing until the start of the NESCAC tournament on November 1st.
"We're just going to come out hard," Nolet said. "We need to not get intimidated by the other teams or their records, and just come out as strong as we can."
