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Soccer

The Setonian
Soccer

Women's Soccer | Jumbos hand Wheaton 2-0 upset on the road

September 25

In what will likely be labeled one of the most noteworthy games of its season, the women's soccer team ventured into the Lyons' lair in Norton, Mass. on Wednesday to take on nationally-ranked No. 8 Wheaton College. And after a 90-minute battle, the Jumbos emerged with another victory tacked to their undefeated record.

The Setonian
Soccer

Men's Soccer | Night fight: Tufts downs Springfield 2-0 in evening play

September 24

On the heels of a 2-1 victory over NESCAC rival Conn. College on Saturday, Tufts defeated the Springfield College Pride 2-0 Tuesday on Bello Field. With the win — which extended the Jumbos' undefeated streak to three games — they improved to 4-1-1 overall, their best record through six games since 1999.

The Setonian
Soccer

Women's Soccer | Into the Lyons' Den: Jumbos take on powerhouse Wheaton today

September 23

    After two home conference victories against traditional NESCAC lightweights Colby and Conn. College, the Jumbos hit the road today for their first true test of the season: an annual contest versus the nationally-ranked No. 8 Wheaton Lyons in Norton, Mass.     Currently ranked No. 4 in New England, the 2-0 Tufts squad is fresh off a 2-0 victory over Conn. College on Saturday. But the Jumbos will need to be on top of their game if they hope to beat the Lyons, a feat they have not accomplished since 2005 in a dramatic come-from-behind 5-2 victory in the NCAA Tournament Sectionals.     "There's definitely a rivalry," senior tri-captain Maya Shoham said. "We play them close and have really competitive games."     Losing to Wheaton, which heads into today's game riding a six-game winning streak and boasting an 8-1 record, in consecutive shutouts the past two years is something that has resonated with the older players, but the rivalry between the two teams is more nebulous for the new faces on the team, many of whom have never faced a powerhouse like Wheaton before.     While the Jumbo defense did not allow a goal in the season's first two games, that statistic will be harder to maintain against the powerful Lyon offense, which has churned out 16 goals in its last four games. Tufts will count on its underclassmen to play significant roles, as three of the team's graduating seniors from last season occupied key defensive positions. Those three spots are now shared by first-year Cleo Hirsh and sophomores Audrey Almy, Carrie Wilson and Bailey Morgan.     "They'll have to step it up, but I think they'll do well," junior tri-captain Whitney Hardy said. "Here at Tufts, we always try to expect the team we're playing to be very good."     "Our young players and everyone on the team work extremely hard regardless of the opponent, so I think that with their work ethic, [their inexperience] won't be a disadvantage," Shoham added.     While the game against Wheaton is a non-conference contest, it certainly doesn't lessen the significance of a potential victory against a regional Goliath: The Lyons are currently ranked second in New England.      "Especially for the returning players, it's a very big deal to win the game [today]," Hardy said.     In 2006, the Lyons shut out Tufts 1-0, before once again asserting their dominance last season with a 2-0 victory on the Jumbos' own Kraft Field. The team will have to come out strong, attacking the ball both offensively and defensively to achieve success on the road against Wheaton.     "What will be important is the entire team's offense," Shoham said. "We had a lot of chances against Conn., and we didn't really follow through on [them], so if we do that more as a team, we should be set.     "[The defense] has been working a lot on playing together," she continued. "They'll have to play the ball. They'll have to step together."     This season the Wheaton game, which traditionally comes as the second one of the season, happened to fall later in the month, giving the Jumbos a second tune-up of sorts with its contest against Conn. College.     "We're really young, so the more we play against other teams, the better off we'll be," Shoham said. "Every game we play, every win we get, we become more cohesive as a team. The defense becomes more confident. We should have more chances that we'll hopefully capitalize on in the game against Wheaton."     Shoham, the sole senior on the team, is the only player left on the roster who defeated the Lyons in 2005. That year, the Jumbos were down 2-0 at halftime before coming out and scoring five second-half goals to beat Wheaton and move on to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.     But despite the historical subtext, the players are still keeping the game in perspective.     "We just have a lot of history with them, and we haven't been as successful the last couple years against them," Shoham said. "It would be great to beat them, but it's essentially just another game, and we have to beat good teams to continue doing well. This is just one of them."

The Setonian
Soccer

Women's Soccer Preview | Jumbos eye second consecutive opening-day victory over NESCAC rival Colby

September 9

    Exiting both the NESCAC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament on penalty kicks is hardly an easy thing to forget.     But for the women's soccer team, the graduation of seven key seniors could make putting the past behind it comparatively easier than anyone anticipated. And with eight new players joining the roster this year, Tufts is ready to take on the 2008 campaign with a clean slate.     "Because we have so many new players — we have eight new players out of 20 — I'm sure the other kids are disappointed over our loss, but it's kind of a distant memory at this point," coach Martha Whiting said. "Everyone is so ready to move forward, and with so many new kids, there's a whole new kind of feeling on the team."             But with so many new faces making up the roster, Tufts will have no easy task at hand.      "The fact that we lost so many seniors is so big because they all played such key positions on the field," junior goalkeeper Kate Minnehan said. "Three of the four defenders were seniors and two of the midfielders and one of the forwards, so we're kind of feeling it all over the field. I think it's going to be important to see how the freshmen step up, not only because we lost so many seniors, but because almost half the team [are] freshmen."     But the team will hardly be short on leadership. While the Jumbo roster boasts only one senior, tri-captain Maya Shoham, the team will return with a strong core of talented sophomores and juniors who will help ease the adjustment.     "We have such a great group of returning kids," Whiting added. "Maya, along with our juniors and sophomores, [is] so ready, and they have a ton of experience. They're really going to set the tone for the year."     "Since we knew so many people were graduating, we were all pretty prepared to step up into leadership roles and take charge," junior tri-captain Whitney Hardy said. "As far as challenges go, for a team that lost seven seniors, it's really important to come together early on as a team and get to know each other so we can start having team chemistry on the field."     Key for the Jumbos will also be the returning of junior tri-captain Cara Cadigan, 2007's NESCAC Rookie of the Year. After sitting out her entire freshman year with an injury, Cadigan led the NESCAC in goals scored and obliterated the Jumbos' single-season scoring record, tallying 19 throughout the season. After last year's unprecedented success, Tufts will look to Cadigan to lead the charge offensively.     "I always think it's a little tougher the second year just because now everyone has played us once at least and some teams twice," Whiting said. "They know who she is, and they will defend her very closely. But Cara is a special player. She'll find her ways to score, whether through breakaways, beating people one-on-one, or shooting out from a distance.     "I think we'll also have kids around her that will score for us, so teams will have to seriously contend with other players, which might give Cara more opportunities," Whiting continued. "She's a goal scorer; she'll be great for us no matter whether she scores 100 goals or three goals."     Minnehan will also be critical for the Jumbos in the backfield. After posting a .789 save percentage last season, she will anchor a defense featuring four new starters this season in freshman Cleo Hirsch and sophomores Audrey Almy, Carrie Wilson and Bailey Morgan.     The season will kick off this Saturday when the Jumbos continue a tradition started in 2004, playing their opener against the Colby Mules (0-7-2), a NESCAC foe that they defeated last year 2-0. While the Mules tied Bates for the bottom of the league standings in 2007, Tufts will not be taking any NESCAC matches for granted.     "For us, as cliché as it sounds, we just have to focus on playing one NESCAC opponent at a time," Whiting said. "We can never get ahead of ourselves, and we need to do our best to compete as well as we can each time we step on the field for a game."     But while the Jumbos remain focused on the task at hand, the team is grateful that the game with the non-conference Wheaten College Lyons, an annual contest since 2004 that usually serves as Tufts' second game of the season, doesn't fall until Sept. 24.     The delay will give the Jumbos time to squeeze in another NESCAC home game against a traditionally weak Conn. College team before Tufts squares off against a Lyons team that has defeated the Jumbos the last two seasons.     "It's definitely going to help," Whiting said. "Maybe Colby and Conn. College didn't have the best years last year, but any NESCAC game is always a battle, so they're great preparation for playing against a team like Wheaton. We'll be happy to have those two games under our belt."     "Because our team is so young, I think every game we can get … before we play some really competitive teams will help us out," Hardy said. "We're still trying to figure out how each other plays and learning our system, so I think it helps. Basically just having as many games as possible is going to be beneficial for us."     For now, the Jumbos will concentrate on a number of aspects of their game as they await the Mules, including defense, the attacking phase and maintaining general fitness.     "We're just trying to work really hard and stay focused on doing what we can do and not worrying about what we can't do," Hardy said.

The Setonian
Soccer

Women's Soccer Preview | Whiting welcomes eight freshmen to roster after departure of seven starters

September 9

    The women's soccer team is arguably one of the most established and successful programs at Tufts: The team has posted 13 consecutive winning seasons and has only two losing records to show for 29 years of competition, it has made the NESCAC tournament for eight straight years and has drawn five invitations to compete at NCAAs and it is coming off a 13-3-2 season in which it has competed in both the NESCAC Championship game and the NCAA Tournament (and was defeated in both by penalty kicks).     And yet, with its history of excellence, this will nevertheless be a trying year for coach Martha Whiting and her Jumbos. While the tradition of success is inherent to the Tufts name, the roster will be very different.     Not only did the team graduate seven starting seniors — something that would severely damage any program — but those seniors were part of arguably the most successful and prolific class in Tufts' history. The group's accomplishments included over 40 wins in four years, a .750 winning percentage against conference opponents and two trips to the NCAA tournament, highlighted by a run to the final four in 2005.     "They were very impressive, especially in the NESCAC," Whiting said. "Over the course of four years, this could've been the most successful group that we've had in terms of wins and losses."     "They were the center of the team for the past few years," junior tri-captain Cara Cadigan said. "We'll definitely need to work hard to fill a lot of their positions."     The group featured forward Lauren Fedore (LA '08), midfielders Rebecca Abbott (E '08) and Martha Furtek (LA '08) and defenders Annie Benedict (LA '08), Julia Brown (LA '08), Joelle Emery (LA '08) and Jessie Wagner (LA '08).     Furtek and Benedict made an impact early on in their careers, garnering All-NESCAC second-team honors. The next year, Wagner and Brown transferred to Tufts, while Furtek improved to All-NESCAC first team status and Emery emerged as All-NESCAC second team. That was the year that the team made its NCAA run, coming back against regional juggernaut Wheaton in the Sweet Sixteen and clinching a penalty-kick victory over Oneonta State in the Elite Eight, all before falling to the College of New Jersey in the NCAA Final Four.     "They were a significant part of the team," Whiting said. "Most of them were on the field almost 90 minutes of every game. So you figure half the kids on the field at any one time were those girls.     "I think that's a really hard thing to do," she continued. "To advance that far in a sport where there are potentially 400 Div. III teams. The fact that they went that far was phenomenal."     Over four years at Tufts, Benedict earned three All-NESCAC second team selections, while Furtek earned three first-team nods and was named an All-American in 2007.     Now, in the wake of their graduation, Tufts is left with a clear and sizable void. The Jumbos will have to make up for that production from somewhere, which is part of the reason that there are eight freshmen on the squad this season.     "[The freshmen are] very versatile," junior tri-captain Whitney Hardy said. "Regionally, they come from all over the country. Their styles of play are all very different, which makes the team better because we're playing against different styles of play every day."     "The new class is one of the most talented that we've had in a while," Whiting said. "They could potentially rival last year's senior class, which is exciting. Still, they're inexperienced, and it'll take a while for them to get their feet wet."     That's why Tufts will be relying mostly on team veterans to pick up the slack, at least for this year.     "We have a returning group that is very experienced," Whiting said. "I think we're only starting one freshman at the outset, which is impressive considering how many seniors we graduated. I'm very excited about the group we have."     The biggest question mark for the Jumbos will be on defense where the team will be starting four new players. Freshman Cleo Hirsch, sophomores Audrey Almy, Carrie Wilson and Bailey Morgan, a transfer student who won Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference newcomer of the year for Rhodes College last season, will be crucial to the Jumbos' success this year.     "They need to get a game under their belt to get confidence," Whiting said. "But they're good players, good athletes, and they understand the game. I have extreme faith in them and know that the more they play together the better they'll get."     "They're learning to work together as a unit," junior goalkeeper Kate Minnehan said. "They just need to become more familiar with each other, and once they learn that they'll be successful."

The Setonian
Soccer

Women's soccer | Jumbos face Emmanuel in first-round game

November 8

By now, the women's soccer team has a pretty good feel for the other teams around New England. In their 15 games against some of the region's top teams, the Jumbos have beaten four of the top 10 to move themselves to No. 3 in the region.

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