After its second tournament launched the water polo team to 8-0, this season was playing out to be a mirror image of last year's undefeated run to the Club Nationals tournament. But with a 9-8 loss to division foe Coast Guard this weekend, that winning streak -- and the Jumbos' season -- came to an abrupt end.
With the defeat, the Jumbos lost their opportunity to even compete for first place in the country. In the past two years the team advanced to Nationals, falling short of the title game both times to take third place overall.
"I think it came down to the fact that we each individually wanted to win the tournament very much, and the problem was everyone took it upon themselves that it was up to them to win the tournament," senior Ben Moskowitz said. "In the past we were more versatile when we worked together ... There was a little bit of a disconnect, and it was a poor time for that to happen."
Problems for the offensively minded Jumbos started early on, as Tufts couldn't seem to find the net. Leading scorer and senior tri-captain Pete Georgakakos was held to just three goals, while freshman Benji Koltai, who emerged as a prolific offensive weapon over the course of his first two collegiate tournaments, was stopped at two.
"A lot of our shots were not great ... or not going on goal," sophomore Alex de Castro-Abeger said. "A lot hit the bars or went slightly over the cage ... The balls were just not going our way. We weren't making shots that we normally always make."
Coast Guard's hole-set strategy also took the Jumbos by surprise, giving way to fouls that in turn led to open shots on goal.
"Normally, the hole set plays two meters away from the goal, and when they get fouled, they have an open pass," senior goalkeeper James Longhurst said. "If you're fouled beyond the 5-meter mark, you have an open shot, and all the defender can do is hold their hand up. They set the hole set up at the five, so when the ball came to the hole set and we fouled their hole set, they'd have a free shot.
"They didn't have anyone set up inside the 5-meter line, so we didn't have any defenders inside the line when they took the open shot," Longhurst continued. "We didn't have anyone to block inside. It was pretty much just the shooter and the goalie, and I can only block so many shots."
The Jumbos relied on Longhurst, who in his first season in the net has come through time and again for Tufts. Longhurst was able to stop a number of Coast Guard's free shots to keep the Jumbos in the game.
"The game would have been a lot worse if he didn't have an amazing game as goalie," de Castro-Abeger said. "He was unbelievable."
But eventually, despite a solid effort, Coast Guard wore the Jumbos down, and their frustration gave way to lapses in their usual style of play.
"It seemed like we weren't playing together as a team like we normally do," Longhurst said. "We weren't passing as much or driving as much, and we sort of just became six individual field players instead of working as one unit. I think that's sort of what led to our inevitable loss."
"We played really hard," Moskowitz added. "I've never seen us play as hard in the four years I've been playing polo here. I think the problem for us is that we didn't execute our game play effectively. Coast Guard played the best game we've seen them have in recent memory. I don't know when they've had as many big shots or big saves in a game against us, ever. It's tough when things are not going well on one end of the spectrum for us and going great for Coast Guard."
The loss to Coast Guard came on the heels of a Tufts victory over Amherst, whom the Jumbos defeated for the third time this season after blowing out the bottom seeded University of Vermont, 18-7. While the Amherst game was relatively close, at 11-8 after the squad struggled a bit in the first half, Tufts' defense managed to take out Amherst's best player and effectively shut down its hole sets.
"It was standard Tufts water polo," de Castro-Abeger said. "We usually come out in the first half not at our strongest. We're a second-half team, and we usually pull away in the second half. We really had control of the game the whole time -- the score may not have represented it in the first or second quarters, but we knew going into the game what type of water polo they played and we knew how to stop it."
Overall, despite the early exit, the season was a productive one for a Jumbo squad that managed to improve defensively and maintain its focus.
"This season was incredible," Moskowitz said. "It was full of ups and downs, but overall, the 20-some odd guys that came out to practice put time and effort into playing the game and learning a lot. It was a tough defeat, and we're sorry it had to be that way, but I think everyone will look back and find that this was a great season -- there were just a few bumps in the road."
