The No. 5 nationally ranked field hockey team continued to roll last week. The Jumbos added a pair of victories, one NESCAC and one non-conference win, along with a win yesterday over No. 14 Wellesley College, to improve to 10-1 on the season. On Thursday, head coach Tina McDavitt's squad ousted the University of New England Nor'Easters 7-1 before besting Connecticut College 4-2 on Saturday.
In the process, senior co-captain Chelsea Yogerst set a program record. Against the University of New England, Yogerst tapped in five goals to become Tufts' all-time leader in single-game scoring.
"It was extremely exciting and humbling to break a school record," Yogerst said. "I am so thankful to have such amazing teammates because their hard work put me in the position to score in both games, and I am really proud of the effort we put in this weekend, especially offensively. We had a number of different players score goals and provide assists which was really great."
On Saturday, sophomore midfielder Dakota Sikes-Keilp led the Jumbos with a two-goal effort that lifted them over the Camels. Connecticut College struck first, when senior forward Laura Sanderson collected her own rebound and fired a shot past Tufts junior keeper Bri Keenan to gain an early Camels advantage.
Nearly 20 minutes later, Tufts finally broke through with an equalizer. The Jumbos earned a penalty corner, and Sikes-Keilp received the ball at the top of the circle, hammering a shot past Camels junior netminder Becca Napolitano to lock the game at 1-1.
"I feel that we have enough trust in each other to know that we can come back from being behind in any game situation," Yogerst said. "Although Conn. scored first, we realized that we had plenty of time to fight back but we were immediately reminded that we needed to increase our intensity."
With less than a minute left in the first period, Tufts pulled ahead when senior co-captain midfielder Stephanie Wan drove a shot that Yogerst tipped past Napolitano.
Tufts headed into the second half with a slim, one-goal advantage. The Jumbos were able to expand their lead in the 44th minute, when sophomore midfielder Rachel Terveer collected a rebound off of a shot by Yogerst, and fired the ball into the upper left corner of the cage to push the Jumbos' lead to 3-1.
Two minutes later, Tufts found the boards again. Sikes-Keilp capitalized on another penalty corner, notching her second goal of the day to extend the lead to 4-1.
The Camels managed to piece together one final goal-scoring possession. In the 55th minute, Sanderson finished her second goal of the day, launching a shot above Keenan's head. Tufts' defense held strong for the final 15 minutes, however, preserving the two-goal margin.
"We built on Thursday's game with our passing," senior All-American midfielder Emily Cannon said. "We just fought. It was a really tough game because Conn. is really good this year, but we had some great touches and finishes on a goalie that held us to one goal on 40 shots last year."
Two days prior, it was Yogerst's exceptional effort that lifted the Jumbos above the Nor'Easters. The first half was all Tufts, with a 15-1 advantage in shots and six penalty corners to the University of New England's two.
Despite a five-save effort from first-year keeper Holly Smith, Yogerst found the back of the net four times in the opening 35 minutes. In the ninth minute of play, Terveer assisted Yogerst with her first goal of the evening, putting Tufts on the board early.
A minute later, freshman forward Annie Artz got involved, connecting with Yogerst for Tufts' second goal of the day. The Jumbos continued to pressure as the half wore on and with 10 minutes left, Cannon dished another assist to Yogerst to put Tufts up 3-0.
"Our passing throughout the entire field was really clicking which allowed us to create space in behind their defense," Yogerst said. "We played a really offensive game which included our defense stepping up for interceptions and our offense cutting back to receive passes. Most of my goals were off of great feeds into the circle that I one-timed."
Yogerst added to the growing margin when she scored off a pass from sophomore forward Allison Rolfe in the 27th minute to give Tufts a massive 4-0 advantage heading into the intermission.
"We focused not on who we were playing but on elevating our own game," Cannon said. "We focused on keeping up the pressure and putting the ball into the circle, where Chelsea was able to do a phenomenal job of finishing those looks."
The visitors drew first blood in the second stanza. Two minutes in, junior forward Erin Bibber put a ball from senior co-captain forward Hayley LaPointe past Keenan to put the Nor'Easters on the board for the first time.12
When we think of cardiovascular health, physical activity - such as running - often comes to mind. But new research shows that running a marathon can prompt heart muscle changes that cause the heart to swell, and this is particularly the case in runners with lower fitness levels.
The researchers, who reported their findings in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, say previous studies have found that many sports competitors show signs of injury to the heart muscle and cardiac abnormalities after they exercise for long periods of time.
The new study was created to assess the degree to which running a marathon stresses the heart, and whether it might cause permanent damage.
As such, the researchers studied 20 amateur long-distance runners between the ages of 18 and 60, who were going to run in the Quebec City Marathon. The runners had no known cardiovascular disease and were not on any kind of drug treatment.
The researchers excluded any runners who had run a marathon in the 2 months before recruitment or during the study period.
Cardiac risk associated with running
Tested 6-8 weeks before the marathon and on the day of the race, the runners were also tested again within 48 hours of completing the marathon. This test included a second MRI and blood sampling.
The researchers say this timeframe ensured sufficient rehydration and a return to normal heart and blood pressure rates after the race. But importantly, it was short enough for them to observe any myocardial changes.
In half of the runners, researchers observed that the marathon prompted a decrease in left and right ventricular function. And when a lot of the heart was affected, there was swelling and reduced blood flow in the heart.
Dr. Eric Larose, of the Institut universitaire de cardiologie et de pneumologie de Québec (IUCPQ) in Canada, says that the heart muscle changes they observed were more common in runners who had lower fitness levels and who trained less.
But they also observed that these changes were temporary.
Dr. Larose says:
"Segmental function decrease is associated with poor prognosis in the presence of CAD (coronary artery disease) or cardiomyopathy. Segmental dysfunction also indicates a poor prognosis in adults without cardiovascular disease.
Although we don't know whether such changes mean that recreational runners are at risk, the attendant edema, and reduced perfusion suggest transient injury."
