The No. 3 Tufts women’s lacrosse team has been on a seemingly unstoppable 10-game winning streak, taking down No. 9 Colby College by a score of 15–6 on Saturday. With strong scoring as well as an impressive defensive showing, the Jumbos demonstrated their depth and wide range of skills.
After playing the majority of their games against out-of-league opponents at the beginning of the season, this game started a string of seven NESCAC games that round out the regular season.
With the high quality of teams in the NESCAC, as well as the rivalries that build up playing the same teams year after year, NESCAC play is exciting. Because of that, along with Colby’s competitiveness, this win was important for Tufts.
“All NESCAC teams are very important to us,” junior attacker Kate Mastrobuono said. “Colby, especially, [since] we’ve had back-and-forth history with them in recent years. So this one was very special to us and getting running time on a top 10 ranked team is very, very huge and a big confidence boost for our whole program.”
For the Jumbos, one of the strongest aspects of this game was their defense, holding the Mules to six goals. The defense tallied four caused turnovers, and junior goalie Pascale de Buren had a season-best 10 saves against Colby.
“I was really proud of our defensive unit and our goalie,” Mastrobuono said. “They just came up with all the saves and forced low shots. They were also very composed because while we were up a lot on man-up situations, the defense did a really good job of staying disciplined and not getting yellows or green cards.”
Junior attacker Margie Carden explained that beyond keeping the Mules’ goals to a minimum, the defense created opportunities for the Jumbos offense by gaining more possessions.
“We had one of our best defensive games,” Carden said. “[The defense caused] a lot of shot clock violations and caused turnovers. So that really gave us a lot of opportunities on the offensive end.”
In terms of offense, the scoring was impressive as well, with 15 goals from eight different players. Sophomore attacker Allie Zorn led the scoring with three goals.
“[Zorn] is such a creative player,” Mastrobuono said. “It’s just so hard to defend her because you never know what she’s going to do.”
The draw control was another important part of the team’s success, with Tufts winning 14 out of 25 draw controls, giving the offense an advantage in their number of possessions.
One strength of the Jumbos is their overall ability to run a fast-paced game. The combination of the depth of the Jumbos bench, allowing them to swap out and rest players, along with the general athleticism of the team allows Tufts to move and run faster than most teams can keep up with. Junior defender Kat Fernandopulle explained that this is something that Tufts wants to continue to take advantage of and improve on.
“[We] definitely want to keep working on pushing the pace in transition,” Fernandopulle said. “We’re such an athletic team, and I really believe that we can outrun any team, so we [need to] step on the gas for that.”
Continuing NESCAC play, Tufts won against Williams 17–9 at home Tuesday night.
With eight top 25 teams, including No. 1 Middlebury, the NESCAC is the most competitive league in Division III.
“The second half of [the season] is mostly NESCAC opponents, so I think that makes it a little bit more competitive,” Carden said. “We have a lot of history with a lot of different teams, so it’s always a very competitive game.”
The Jumbos hope to continue their undefeated streak, and these recent wins have only increased their confidence. That being said, the Jumbos make sure not to underestimate any opponent.
“Respect everyone, fear no one is what we say. [Respect] the teams and how good they are, but [carry] the confidence that we’ve beaten just as good teams as well,” Fernandopulle said.
Zorn also explained that she’s excited about how much the Jumbos have improved.
“It is promising, I think, playing against teams who maybe we had different scores with last year,” Zorn said. “Feeling that difference that’s here is very exciting.”
The Jumbos have been able to capitalize on the depth and differing skill sets among players in order to see their high amount of success this season.
“I think we’ve done a good job of empowering everyone to be themselves while also making everyone else better at the same time,” Zorn said. “[We’ve been] embracing everyone’s different skill sets and roles, and it’s coming together really nicely.”
Carden explained that she’s excited to see the improvement in the next few games.
“We were able to be pretty dominant, but there are still definitely a lot of areas we could have cleaned up,” Carden said. “I think that’s exciting, just knowing that we still have a lot more potential.”
Tufts will play Wesleyan University on Saturday at 12 p.m. in Middletown, Conn.
