While Tufts was busy hosting and participating in the conference field hockey and volleyball tournaments over the weekend, the men's and women's soccer tournaments played out in Middlebury, Vt. and Williamstown, Mass., respectively. The Amherst Lord Jeffs pulled out the upset over the hosting Panthers to take the men's crown while the Ephs successfully defended their home turf to win the women's title.
For most of the NESCAC season, Middlebury (13-2-2) looked like the team to beat in men's soccer. The Panthers were the clear class of the league, not losing a game until a 1-0 setback against Bates Oct. 18.
On its home field in the NESCAC championship yesterday, however, Middlebury fell 2-0 to Amherst (12-3-2), the only team that came close to approaching the Panthers' regular season successes. The victory marked the first NESCAC men's soccer championship in Lord Jeffs' history.
Both teams entered the game having won Saturday's semifinal matchups 1-0 -- Middlebury over the No. 4-seeded Williams and Amherst over the No. 3-seeded Trinity.
The Bantams had defeated Tufts 2-0 in quarterfinal play Nov. 2. The championship game was the only contest of the tournament to witness the upset of a lower seed over a higher one.
For Amherst, Sunday's game marked the completion of some unfinished business: Last year, the No. 2-seeded Panthers beat the top-seeded Lord Jeffs 1-0 for the NESCAC crown. This was the third straight year that Middlebury appeared in the conference title game.
While Tufts was dispatched last weekend, there was still a Jumbo connection on Sunday. Amherst recorded its first goal from senior quad-captain Jake Duker, brother of Tufts junior tri-captain Bear Duker. Less than four minutes later, a Duker shot bounced off the post and was knocked in by freshman Jay Heo for the final score of the game.
Notably absent from the final was Williams, which has won five NESCAC titles since 2001.
In women's soccer, however, the Ephs ran the regular season conference table and captured the NESCAC title for the second straight year in a matchup of the top two teams in the league. First-seeded Williams beat the second-seeded Amherst Lord Jeffs in Sunday's final, 3-2, in overtime.
Junior Sarah Walmsley scored just 2:38 into the overtime period, making the Ephs the first team ever to win back-to-back NESCAC championships in women's soccer.
Williams, ranked first in the nation, was trailing 2-1 at halftime and didn't score the equalizing goal until the 86th minute, when senior Gabrielle Woodson notched her 12th goal of the season and prolonged the match.
The Ephs faced little difficulty en route to the championship game. In the quarterfinals, they overwhelmed eighth-seeded Colby, 4-0, and then blew out No. 5 Bowdoin 6-1 in the semifinals. Bowdoin eliminated Tufts on penalty kicks Nov. 2 in the quarterfinals.
The Lord Jeffs, meanwhile, won their two previous games by the slimmest of margins. They beat No. 7 Wesleyan in the quarterfinals 1-0, and then went on to beat No. 3 Middlebury by the same score.
The title is the third for the Ephs, who won in 2004 and again last year against Bowdoin. They will look to avenge last year's third-round loss in the NCAA Tournament as they enter this year as the top seed.
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