With a trip down to the Mid-Atlantic to take on two ranked opponents, the Tufts women’s lacrosse team faced a new level of competition. Yet, three days later, the team would be flying home to Logan happy, having racked up two double-digit victories and established themselves as a clear threat to Middlebury’s chokehold on the Division III lacrosse world.
The first stop on the team’s trip was Lexington, Va., where they took on Washington and Lee for the third consecutive year. The team got off to an ideal start, scoring the first six goals of the game, powered by two goals and two assists from senior midfielder Ella Lesperance. After the Generals finally got on the scoreboard for the first time, the Jumbos hammered them back with a 3–1 run to end the first half, going to the halftime break with a 9–2 lead over the now No. 10 team in the country.
Just 46 seconds into the second half, Lesperance completed her hat trick as the Jumbos raced into double figures at the Generals’ expense. After the Generals fought back with their first consecutive goal run of the game, the Jumbos put the game away with a crucial 6–0 run, keeping the Generals off the scoreboard while moving the game to running clock without significant difficulty. While the Generals eventually clawed two goals back to make the final score 17–6, the game’s outcome was never in doubt as the Jumbos moved to 6–0, winning on the road in Lexington for the first time in program history.
Junior attacker Allie Zorn finished as the Jumbos’ leading scorer on the day, recording five goals and three assists, scoring on every one of her shots on goal. In the draw circle, senior Genna Gibbons continued her stellar start to the season, grabbing five draw controls, while graduate student Madeline Delaney also recorded five to go along with two goals and an assist in an exceptional performance. In goal, senior Pascale de Buren recorded 10 saves on 16 shots, marking her sixth consecutive win to open the season.
Two days later, Tufts took to the field for the second time that weekend on the campus of Christopher Newport University. Just like the Washington and Lee game, the Jumbos started in complete control, racing out to a 7–0 lead at the end of the first quarter behind two goals each from Delaney, senior attacker Margie Carden and senior midfielder Caroline Conaghan. The party kept rolling into the second quarter as the Jumbos extended the lead to 11–0, sending the game to running clock in the first half.
In the second half, the Captains would regain their composure and limit the Jumbos to only four goals, but the damage had been done. With five minutes remaining in the game, head coach Courtney Shute called a timeout to enact some squad rotation, allowing several underclassmen to get in-game experience against a top-25 opponent, as De Buren recorded her seventh victory of the season. Carden and Conaghan paced the Jumbos’ offense by each scoring a hat trick, while Gibbons and junior midfielder Elsa Schutt continued their impressive work in the draw circle, each recording three draw controls.
After seven games, the Jumbos have shown a remarkably balanced squad, ranking fourth in Division III lacrosse in scoring offense and tenth in scoring defense. Additionally, several individuals have had impressive starts to the season, including Gibbons, who has recorded 56 draw controls in the first eight games. Eight Jumbos have crossed the 10-point plateau, led by Zorn with 34, who is making the most of her preseason All-American nod, and Carden, who has recorded 24 goals as she seeks to reach the 250 career goal mark.
In a statement to the Daily regarding her perspective on the weekend’s success, Zorn wrote, “This was definitely an exciting weekend for us getting to play two non-conference high level opponents. … Both games our defenses were absolutely lights out to start the games, and we were forcing some really low angle shots that Pascale did a fabulous job capitalizing on. Offensively, we moved the ball really well and capitalized on a lot of our 8 meters which helped build confidence.”
Yesterday, Tufts defeated MIT with a 19–3 win, extending their recent run of victories. With a 8–0 start, the Jumbos’ confidence is bound to be sky-high as they begin a span of three games in eight days, including hosting No. 5 Colby and No. 7 Wesleyan in NESCAC play on the next two Saturdays. The following Saturday, they will make the trip north to take on the No. 1 Middlebury Panthers in a game likely to decide home-field advantage in the NESCAC tournament.
