Tufts confident, prepared heading into Final Four

While there was a significant amount of optimism surrounding the men's soccer team entering the 2014 season, few expected the Jumbos to keep their season going into December. While Tufts showed that it can compete with the best teams in the country, tying Amherst and taking the notoriously-difficult NESCAC regular-season title, it takes a different kind of combination of talent, fundamentals and luck to make it to the Final Four.

That is, however, exactly the position Tufts finds itself in with a semifinal matchup against Ohio Wesleyan. Although Ohio Wesleyan will undoubtedly be tough, Tufts has shown it can go toe-to-toe with the upper echelon of Div. III soccer.

"We're a team that's very confident right now," senior co-captain center back Sam Williams told the Daily in an email. "There's not a team in the country we don't feel we can beat, but we still have a lot of work to do. It's great to get to this stage and that has always been the goal, but our entire focus now is on Ohio Wesleyan. We just beat a very good team in Messiah, but we have to come out even stronger in order to keep this run going."

The Jumbos, who left for Kansas City on Wednesday afternoon, will have had almost a two-week break before their match against the Battling Bishops on Friday afternoon, but Williams is not concerned about the time off.

"We took a few days off for Thanksgiving break, which I think really helped everyone rest up and get healthy after two demanding weeks with back-to-back games on both weekends," Williams said. "We came back early from break and started training over the weekend as normal, getting everyone refocused. Everyone has been very sharp during the week and excited for the trip to Kansas City."

Tufts will hope to keep its momentum going despite the break, as it is arguably one of the hottest teams in the country, cruising through the first three rounds of the tournament while taking down Dickinson by as score of 2-1, Wheaton 2-0 and Muhlenberg 2-0. Tufts then ran into Messiah, winners of eight of the past 10 national championships and owners of a 38-game unbeaten streak.

This historic college soccer great, however, could not slow Tufts down, as junior midfielder Jason Kayne's goal in the first minute of the game gave Tufts a lead that it refused to yield for the next 90 minutes.

Tufts will continue to be challenged as it takes on an Ohio Wesleyan team that is a consistent contender for the national championship.

"Ohio Wesleyan [is] an extremely athletic, organized team, so we have to be ready for that," senior co-captain forward Maxime Hoppenot told the Daily in an email. "The other thing they have going for them is that they've been here before. They won the national title in 2011, so they know how to handle this situation, whereas it's all new to us."

Ohio Wesleyan will look to run most of its offense through All-American senior forward Colton Bloecher, who has scored a whopping 18 goals this year, to go along with four assists. Bloecher will try to work with junior midfielder Brian Schaefer, who has put in 11 goals to go with five assists. The Jumbos' ability to win the battle in their half will be essential if they hope to move on to the national championship.

"We're going to need to contain their forwards and dominate the midfield," Williams said. "They have a very dynamic pair of forwards who have scored a lot of goals, so we're going to need to deny service to them and not give them space when they do get the ball. We expect to have a numbers advantage in the center midfield, so if we can put pressure on them there and not let them out of their half, we should be able to find success."

On the offensive side of the ball, look for Tufts to continue to try and keep the ball on the ground and build through Ohio Wesleyan. According to D3soccer.com writer Ryan Harmanis, Ohio Wesleyan's achilles' heel this year has been a tendency to have mental lapses from an otherwise strong back line. Therefore, the key for Tufts will be to force Ohio Wesleyan into those errors.

"I think our offense just needs to be dynamic," Hoppenot said. "We work best when putting defenses on their heels and unbalancing teams. If our ball-movement is high and we're going at them 15-20 times with our front five, we should be in good shape."

While it appears Tufts has the pieces in place to win, the team still realizes that it will have to play its best soccer of the season to move on to the national championship.

"I expect it to be a battle, and to be successful we'll have to come out very fast and sharp," Williams said. "This is historically one of the best teams in [Div. III] soccer, and they know what it takes to win. We're going to have to match their intensity and impose our game on them."