The Tufts Daily

The colleges that make up the New England Small College Athletic Conference have more to offer than just large financial endowments, a liberal arts education and an Ivy League inferiority complex. In fact, this Division III conference contains some of the most interesting and historic athletic programs in the country. The COVID-19 pandemic may have […]

Fly the banner and start the parade because on Saturday, May 8, Tufts softball won its 12th NESCAC Championship at Williams. The series was a best of three, but the Jumbos only needed the first two games to claim victory over their in-state rivals. The journey up to Williamstown, Mass. had an added element of […]

From a canceled season in 2020 to a condensed schedule in 2021, to qualifying for the NESCAC Championship, Tufts softball has endured and finally become the zenith of NESCAC sports. On May 9, Tufts will play Williams College for the NESCAC title. Williams held an undefeated 12–0 record during the regular season, while Tufts ended at 15–3 with losses to Middlebury, Bowdoin and Brandeis. 

Tufts softball has clinched its trip to the NESCAC Championship with a four-game sweep over Bates and Wesleyan to improve to 12–2 on the season.

Sitting atop the East Division with an 8–2 overall record and 5–1 mark in conference play, the Jumbos seem sure to make the NESCAC championship, but not without some obstacles along the way. In terms of their strength of schedule, the teams Tufts has beaten have a combined winning percentage of around .455 in the NESCAC, while Bowdoin — who split wins with Tufts in their matchup this weekend — is the only opponent with a winning percentage for conference play of at least .500.

The series consisted of two doubleheaders: the first set at Tufts on Saturday and the second at Colby on Sunday. The final game was a blowout win for the Jumbos, who beat the Mules in five innings due to the mercy rule. Tufts sophomore catcher Josie Steinberg and graduate student infielder Casey Maggiore combined for four hits and three RBIs. DiCocco, a first-year who has immediately contributed to the team, now has a 3–1 record with two wins as a starter, and was just named NESCAC Pitcher of the Week.

In 2019, the Jumbos won the NESAC Championship, but after the pandemic denied them a 2020 season, only nine players from that championship team remain. The first game was riddled with errors and batting struggles for both teams, as the offseason rust was palpable.

March Madness got off to a rough start last Friday after Sedona Prince, a forward on the University of Oregon's women's basketball team, released a TikTok video that exposed the disparities between the men’s and women’s facilities in the college basketball tournament bubbles. 

With basketball gone, many NBA players spent their time campaigning for racial equality during the summer's Black Lives Matter protests. Meanwhile, NBA executives were devising a way to finish the season in the hopes of saving some of the lost revenue.

This week, the World Uyghur Congress filed a complaint demanding that the International Olympic Committee cancel the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. The objection comes amid ongoing reports of human rights abuses by the Chinese government against Uyghur Muslims.