Women’s lacrosse split a pair of games over the weekend, falling 14–10 to Wesleyan on Saturday before picking up the slack a day later in a 7–6 victory against cross-state rival Williams.
It was a low-scoring weekend for the Jumbos, who tallied 17 goals across both games. But on Saturday it wasn’t enough to overcome the 11–2 Cardinals, who put up 10 points alone in the opening two quarters.
Heading into the second half down 10–3, the Jumbos looked to gain momentum quickly. Both teams’ offenses showed up in the third quarter and proceeded to trade goals back and forth. For Tufts, senior attacker Caroline Walter led the charge, followed by a second goal from junior midfielder Emma Joyce, who initially jumpstarted the Jumbo offense at the top of the game.
By the end of the third quarter, Wesleyan had increased their lead to 14–6 but not without a response goal from Tufts sophomore attacker Margie Carden. Tufts continued to battle into the fourth with assistance from junior attacker Alexa Amorosino, who kicked off scoring in the final period for the Jumbos. Amorosino put away two goals, followed by another Carden goal, leaving Tufts behind by 5 with three minutes remaining. In the final second, junior midfielder Madeline Delaney snuck one to the back of the net, but sadly as the buzzer rang, the score stood 14–10 for Wesleyan.
“I think on Saturday, we played a little scared or not confident, made some mistakes early on,” Carden said.
However, Carden remarked on how the struggles of Saturday opened a new world of growth for the Jumbos in their showdown against the Williams Ephs the next day.
“Going into Sunday we had the attitude of having confidence in each other, confidence in ourselves and tried to play with that and have fun with each other — which I think was missing on Saturday,” she said. “So going in with that attitude was definitely important for pulling out the win.”
She continued to note how, while Tufts managed to pull out the win, the game against Williams provided the team opportunities to learn more about how to control their play as they wrap up the regular conference season.
“I think we made a lot of mistakes early on and we kind of let Williams stay in the game. [However] we had a great fourth quarter and found some spark and momentum after a couple of key plays. It was a very low-scoring game, but we played very hard up until the last whistle and that’s saying a lot after having a doubleheader,” Carden said. “I think [it was] very tiring, but just gave it our all because we knew we weren’t gonna be playing for another week.”
Although the ball did not meet the net as much as the Jumbos may have wanted, first-year attacker Allie Zorn proved the importance of finishing strong with her game-winning goal in the last two minutes.
The Williams game was also a place for the defense to shine. Senior goalie Courtney Kaufman knocked down a Williams free position shot to keep the game tied in the first quarter. This opened up the path for Delaney to secure a Jumbo lead — which Kaufman maintained.
Tufts continued to score and hold the lead until the fourth quarter, when Williams’ Grace Collier scored with 10 minutes remaining. However, Carden swiftly responded to allow the Jumbos to both hold down the fort with two more Kaufman saves and the game-winning goal from Zorn.
“I think it’s a lot to have two games in one weekend and you don’t want to overlook any opponent that you have. It’s just a lot mentally and physically on your body,” Carden said. “But I think it was nice after being pretty disappointed on Saturday to have a quick opportunity to kind of get back into it and get another chance to correct a lot of the mistakes that were made on Saturday.”
After a long weekend with a pair of conference games split across the state, Tufts gets a short break from games to settle in and prepare for the rest of the season. Carden shed a little light on the opportunity this break brings and what she hopes to see for the rest of the season.
“We have a lot of opportunities this week to really get better in practice, and it’s one of our last regular season games before we head into the playoffs,” Carden said. “Looking to really play together more, have a lot of assists and goals, have each other’s backs on the field and just put together a big team win for the full four quarters is something we’re really looking forward to on Saturday.”
Tufts will travel to face Hamilton on Saturday at 12 p.m.
