The last members of Tufts' 2012 NCAA championship field hockey team graduated in May, but the team has not lowered its expectations. The 2016 Jumbos are looking to break their four-year streak of losing in the NESCAC tournament semifinals and finally get back to the NCAA tournament. They have not received a bid since 2013.
“This season we're stressing the importance of holding each other to a higher standard,” senior co-captain Nicole Arata said. “We want to be supportive of our teammates while pushing them to be the best they can be.”
Last year’s squad was relatively successful, finishing 11-6 overall and 7-3 in the NESCAC before ending its season with a 4-1 loss to Middlebury in the conference semifinals. Compared with the program's high standards from recent years, though, the 2015 season was a disappointment, since Tufts was unable to improve on its 2014 performance and return to the NCAA tournament.
Despite having just three seniors on the roster, this year’s team is visibly more excited and optimistic than usual and believes that it is ready to get back to 2012 form.
Tufts upgraded the program's facilities over the summer when it renovated Bello Field. The Jumbos will now play their home games on AstroTurf and will look to capitalize on the advantages of a faster playing surface, including improvements to their ball movement.
Arata believes the new field will be a boon to the Jumbos and give them an edge against the highly ranked teams that come to Bello every season.
“We are going back to our old formation this year,” Arata said. “It’s a system that we trust: we have layers of defense to depend on and lots of passing options going forward and we've always been a really strong passing team. We're so excited to get onto our new field in the next couple of weeks because our style of play works so well on AstroTurf.”
Senior forward Dominique Zarrella, the team’s leading goal scorer for each of the last two seasons and a Longstreth/NFHCA Div. III All-Region second team pick her sophomore year, returns to captain the squad again this year along with Arata. Zarrella will look to capitalize on that faster ball movement to complement her scoring ability and power the Jumbos’ offense.
The six seniors that the Jumbos lost last season will inevitably be missed, but head coach Tina McDavitt-Mattera's program reloaded with another six first-years. Including the 17 returners, coach McDavitt-Mattera has formed an all-around solid roster.
Though the team lost several of its leading goal scorers from last season, Zarrella paces a group of talented forwards with proven scoring talent. Senior forward Annie Artz, who was the team’s second-highest goal scorer in 2014 but missed the entire 2015 season with a knee injury, returns to the front line. Both captains stressed that her return is a major factor in their excitement for this season.
Sophomore Hanaa Malik, who had an impressive rookie season last year and tied for third on the team in scoring, and classmate Gigi Tutoni, who tallied three goals last season, will help add pressure to opposing defenses.
The midfield similarly looks to be solid again this season as it returns several dependable and experienced players, including juniors Ellexa Thomas, Erin Sanders and Celia Lewis. There are also a number of former rookies whose contributions are expected to grow now that they are more seasoned.
“[Sophomore] Claire Trilling will definitely be a factor this season,” Zarrella said. “She's solid in the midfield but also a threat on offense.”
This year’s talented first-year class will also be counted on to contribute to key roles in the midfield and to support the Jumbo attack.
“[First-years] Rachel Hamilton and Shannon Yogerst will bring a lot to our forward line,” Zarrella said. “They're both skilled and have been doing a good job of finding the back of the net at practice. And Marguerite Salamone and Brigid Gliwa will be awesome additions to our midfield—they're both fast but also have an offensive mindset, which is always nice to have."
Arata will help anchor the Jumbo defense and utilize her significant experience to help a back line that will likely see several new starters. Sophomore Issy del Priore figures to play a key role on defense and is looking calm and dependable, according to Zarrella. Sophomore Emily Polinski, who stepped in early last season to take over the starting goalkeeper position and produced a strong rookie campaign, returns to the net.
The team will likely face its toughest competition of the season in conference play again this year. Match-ups against perennial field hockey powerhouses Bowdoin and Middlebury are especially daunting. Middlebury ruined Bowdoin’s perfect season last year by edging them 1-0 in the NCAA Championships to earn the title, but with four national championships from 2007-2013, Bowdoin has undoubtedly been the top team in the nation in the last decade.
Those two dominant NESCAC forces are the Jumbos’ biggest obstacles to winning the program’s second conference title. Both Bowdoin and Middlebury, however, lost key contributors from last season, and, according to Arata, Bowdoin looked vulnerable and beatable in last Saturday’s tri-team scrimmage between Bates, Bowdoin and Tufts.
Tufts won’t face Middlebury or Bowdoin until October, so the team looks to get off to a strong start at Colby on Saturday before taking on Bates and Wesleyan later this month.
Last year, Tufts struggled at times to maintain its high level of play against weaker competition, even losing to underdog Wesleyan early last season. The challenge in these first few weeks will be to not play to the level of weaker teams and keep the pressure on.
“Right now we are focusing on keeping our pace at practice high so that when we get to game day, we can focus on the game itself and doing our job instead of worrying about the other team's pace,” Zarrella said.
Overall, the Jumbos have a complete and experienced roster with depth at every position, and already appear to be in regular season form. They’ll be looking to prove their skill and start their 2016 season strong on Saturday when they take on the Mules in Maine.
Field hockey seeks return to NCAA tournament in 2016
