The field hockey team's perfect season is about to be put to the ultimate test.
Three of the nation's top 10 teams will descend on Bello Field this weekend to meet No. 2 Tufts, which is set to host the semifinal and championship rounds of the NESCAC Tournament. Trying to upend conference top-seeded Tufts' quest for its first-ever conference championship will be a venerable who's who of the country's elite squads: No. 4 Bowdoin, No. 6 Middlebury and No. 9 Trinity, all of which the Jumbos defeated on the road during the regular season.
"It's always been our goal to get the top seed and be able to host the NESCAC Tournament, and it's especially exciting this year because the competition is just so great," senior tri-captain Tess Jasinski said. "It's just going to be a great weekend of field hockey: four great teams competing and coming out strong."
The 15-0 Jumbos, the only undefeated team in the nation, will kick off play tomorrow at 11 a.m. with a semifinal clash against the fifth-seeded Bantams. The two teams squared off in a thrilling regular season matchup on Oct. 25 in Hartford, Conn., when Tufts escaped with a narrow 2-1 overtime victory to improve to 5-1 in its last six meetings with Trinity.
This time around, the Jumbos will quite literally have home field advantage. Trinity, which, along with both Bowdoin and Middlebury, plays its home games on AstroTurf and will be forced to adjust to Bello's field turf, a surface that lends itself to a much slower game.
"I think it'll be interesting for them to get on our surface and see how quickly they can adjust," coach Tina McDavitt said. "All three of those teams are very fast and are excellent on penalty corners, and I think they may struggle a little bit on our field. This field doesn't play into their strengths, which is great."
With a victory over the Bantams, the Jumbos would advance to the NESCAC championship game for the first time in program history. Their opponent would be the winner of tomorrow's other semifinal contest, a rematch of last year's national championship game featuring second-seeded Bowdoin and third-seeded Middlebury. That scenario would present Tufts with the difficult challenge of having to beat a perennial national powerhouse for the second time this season.
"It's always hard beating teams twice," Jasinski said. "Bowdoin, Middlebury and Trinity: every time we played those teams [in the regular season,] it was a close game. Now that we're the No. 1 seed, all those teams are going to be coming out hard, really wanting to beat us."
The Jumbos will await the return of junior forward Amanda Russo, who missed the team's NESCAC Tournament-opener against Colby Sunday with a broken right thumb. Tufts' second-leading scorer this season, Russo has been practicing this week and is expected to join junior Michelle Kelly and sophomore Tamara Brown on the Jumbos' potent forward line tomorrow.
"Definitely, it's going to take a bit of an adjustment for her to get used to having it wrapped and obviously just dealing with the pain of it," McDavitt said. "But I'm really impressed with her attitude — there's no question she's going to be out there."
With all the talent on hand this weekend, Tufts will also have a chance to gain some still-elusive respect on the national scale. After picking up a historic victory over then-No. 1 Bowdoin on Halloween night, the Jumbos were thought to have a justifiable claim to the top spot in the National Field Hockey Coaches Association poll. But when the rankings were released on Tuesday, Tufts drew the No. 2 spot, just two points behind new-No. 1, Messiah. Winning arguably the nation's most competitive conference, however, would undoubtedly stamp the Jumbos as a legitimate national heavyweight.
"I think it definitely is a motivating factor," McDavitt said. "We've talked about all season how the coaches poll doesn't really mean anything in that it doesn't hold any weight when you go to NCAAs. If you are to get an at-large bid, the coaches poll has nothing to do with it. But it's still a matter of respect."
Also at stake for Tufts is a chance to add even more luster to the best season in program history.
"This season's been unbelievable, and it's gone by so quickly," Jasinski said. "It's crunch time right now. We've had great wins, and everyone has really come together as a team. Right now, it's going to come down to us playing with heart, playing a full 70 minutes. It would just be unbelievable to advance to that championship game and come out on top of the NESCAC."