With the undefeated field hockey squad going against a one loss Trinity team, it's obvious that the stakes are high in this conference showdown.
Posting an 11-0 record overall, 7-0 NESCAC, the nationally-ranked No. 5 Jumbos have just three regular season games remaining and look poised to make a run at both the NESCAC and NCAA Championships. Tomorrow the squad will face one of its toughest challenges of the season when it takes on Trinity (10-1 overall) in Hartford, Conn.
Sitting atop the conference standings, Tufts set a new record for the longest winning streak in a season with 11, eclipsing its previous record of 10 wins set in 1981. The Bantams and the Bowdoin Polar Bears (11-1 overall) are the only remaining NESCAC opponents Tufts has left to face before the conference tourney.
More importantly, both are ranked nationally in the top 10 -- Bowdoin is No. 2 nationally and Trinity is ninth -- and currently sit second and third behind Tufts in the league standings. Despite Tufts' apparent domination of the conference, the Bantams and the Polar Bears represent the greatest obstacle on the Jumbos' road to the NESCAC title.
Trinity's 2-0 shutout of Bowdoin last Saturday dethroned the Polar Bears from the top of the NESCAC, allowing Tufts' ascent to the top. Despite Trinity's rise to a No. 9 standing in the national rankings, the Bantams will have to further lift their level of play in order to emerge as a true contender. Bowdoin outshot Trinity 15-4 and had 13 penalty corner opportunities to the Bantams' five but couldn't convert on their possessions.
"The Trinity coach said that [Trinity] was able to capitalize on their opportunities," coach Tina McDavitt said. "They only had a few shots on net and were able to convert. Trinity's defense played really well because Bowdoin had a lot more opportunities, but didn't convert. I think this shows that in field hockey, unlike in most other sports, a team can play really well for the majority of the game and even outplay their opponent and still lose. That is probably what happened to Bowdoin."
Trinity's upset marked the program's first win against Bowdoin since 1997 and simultaneously ended the 2007 NESCAC champion's 31-game winning streak. Both of Trinity's goals were scored by midfielder Christine Mwatarura, the current NESCAC Player of the Week.
Needless to say, the Bantam's offensive potency is something that Tufts will need to quell.
"[Trinity] is a really fast and very skilled team," McDavitt said. "We're going to need to slow down their forwards and keep any chance at them gaining momentum to a minimum. They have a really strong midfielder -- [Mwatarura] is really athletic and we need to be aware of her to shut her down."
Last year, the Bantams made it into the conference tournament semifinals before losing to Middlebury, the team that knocked out Tufts in the first round. The Panthers went on to lose to Bowdoin in the championship game.
Tomorrow's contest will be played on Trinity's AstroTurf field, and the Jumbos expect to benefit from the smoother surface, which contributes to a quicker game pace.
"I'm looking forward to this away game," senior tri-captain Brittany Holiday said. "Playing on AstroTurf is generally a lot faster than what we play on at home. That will be great for our team because its faster surface will make our passing patterns even faster."
While Trinity presents a real challenge to preserving their perfect record, the Jumbos lead the conference in assists-per-game and goals-per-game and will be a formidable opponent to the streaking Bantam squad.
After a season of setting records, Tufts may break yet another tomorrow, as the team remains just one goal shy of beating the school record of 52 goals in a season. Even with a possible trip to the conference championship in sight, the Jumbos have tabled their record-breaking accomplishments in favor of a "one-game-at-a-time" approach.
"We haven't even started thinking about the Bowdoin game yet or the NESCAC Championship," Holiday said. "Right now we just need to work on our fundamentals and focus on [Bowdoin] after playing Trinity. At this point, we just need to stay confident in what our team is capable of."
