The women's lacrosse team (No. 12) fell to NESCAC opponent Bowdoin (No. 5) with a final score of 11-9 on Bello Field. Earlier in the week, the Jumbos defeated Amherst (No. 14) 11-10 in overtime, also at home. With the regular season now over, Tufts (10-5) sits at fifth in the NESCAC with a conference record of 6-4. The team's position in the standings sets it up for a rematch with Hamilton (No. 7), who defeated the Jumbos 9-7 on April 11.
“[The regular season] definitely went by quickly, and we put ourselves in a good position to be successful in the off-season," junior attack and quad-captain Caroline Ross said. "We are seeing Hamilton for the second time on Saturday, and we know that we can play better than we did the first time and take advantage of how they play and how well we can play. I mean that game didn’t go the way we wanted it to, but we are still in a really good position and psyched to play Hamilton again.”
This excitement has been matched throughout the season.
“It makes us angry," first-year midfielder Jenn Duffy said of losing to Bowdoin. "We are definitely going to go into the playoffs 100 percent and do everything we can to win. We are playing Hamilton again on the same field that we lost to them, and we should have won that game too. I know I’m fired up and I’m pretty sure everybody else on our team is fired up too to prove to them that we are a great team and could win.”
Bowdoin's senior midfielder and co-captain Taylor Wilson struck first for the Polar Bears on a free position shot just 34 seconds into the game. However, the Jumbos clamped down and scored the next three goals. Junior midfielder Brigid Bowser netted two, her 25th and 26th of the season, while Duffy scored off an assist from senior defender Emily Wright. Wilson kept her team alive with a score at 19:32, but Ross scored two more for Tufts to take a commanding 5-2 lead. Again Wilson brought Bowdoin back with a score, and again the Jumbos responded: this time, senior attacker Annie Nero found string.
Up 6-3, the Jumbos allowed a mini-run with under ten minutes left in the first half and the Polar Bears evened the score with three straight. In the second half Bowdoin again blitzed the Jumbos, scoring twice in the first two minutes. Junior midfielder and leading scorer Lindsay Picard, who had been surprisingly quiet so far, scored the second of the early go als and chipped in another. Her two goals were broken up by Tufts senior midfielder and quad-captain Lindsey Walker's score at 27:10. The score remained 9-7 in favor of Bowdoin for almost nine minutes until senior midfielder Clare McLaughlin broke the Jumbos down at 7:43, adding to the pressure on the team.
“We definitely could play better," Duffy said. "What our coach always says is ‘play for sixty seconds for sixty minutes,’ because what we do is we go through lulls throughout the game and so I think that’s something that we need to work on.”
Still competing hard, Duffy brought the Jumbos within striking range with a goal at 5:33, but Wilson's goal a minute and a half later all but put the game out of reach. Still, Duffy managed another goal on an assist from Ross, bringing the final score to 11-9.
“Jenn Duffy had a great game," Ross said. "She really stepped up when we needed her to. We had a lot of secondary scoring which is great to see. Defensively there were a lot of great moments in both games.”
Duffy seemed to enjoy her growing role on the offense.
“I’ve never scored more than one goal in any game this year so it was definitely cool," Duffy said. "One of my favorite things is when you get to throw your stick down after you get a goal and the [celebrations] that you do after. I think I just throw my stick down and jump as high as I can and give out hugs to whoever is closest to me.”
Outshot 37-19, the Jumbos found themselves playing defense for much of the game. Bowdoin also dominated draw controls in the second half (7-2), but Tufts' dominance in the first half (9-4) caused both teams to finish with 11. Saves and ground balls were roughly even, but Bowdoin had a slight advantage in turnovers, forcing 12 and allowing only eight.
Tufts defeated Amherst 11-10 at home in a hard-fought overtime game for the first time since the beginning of the 2011 season. Neither team could score until six minutes into the game, when senior attacker Priscilla Tyler spun past her defender for a clean look at senior goalkeeper Rachel Gallimore. Ross scored the first of her three pre-halftime goals driving to the net. She was the only Tufts player to score until Bowser evened the score at 4-4 with only 23 seconds remaining in the half. Bowser scored the first goal of the second half as well.
“It was a really good feeling," Ross said of besting Amherst. "I wish it had not gone to overtime. I was a little too nervous, but I think that it really showed what we are capable of and was a good statement to make for the team and the program. It was alumni day and a lot of the alums had never beaten Amherst so it was just a big win for the program in general.”
Neither team led by more than two throughout the entire game, but with six minutes to go, Amherst led 10-8. Ross and first-year midfielder Calie Nowak evened the score with one goal apiece, both assisted by Bowser, to force overtime.
"As a whole, we really never doubted that we were going to win the game -- it was just a matter of how we were going to win it," Ross said. "I think we were very composed throughout and we never really showed our nerves, because they are going to be there naturally, but I think that our composure throughout the whole time and our patience on attack and really possessing the ball helped to kind of calm us down and keep us focused in that moment.”
Ross' sixth goal of the game ended up sealing Tufts' win over the Lord Jeffs in overtime. For her performance, Ross was named NESCAC's Co-Player of the Week. Ross had scored seven points in a game against Wesleyan earlier in the season, so this six-point explosion was just another day on the field for her.
“In my head I just knew that we weren’t going to lose that game and I wasn’t going to let that happen," Ross said. "I didn’t realize it at the time, but it was just taking advantage of mismatches and opportunities that you have all of the time.”
Ross will look to do the same against Hamilton on Saturday as Tufts opens up the post-season on the road.
