The women's lacrosse team's recent surge continued on Tuesday, when it took down the then−national No. 9 Babson Beavers 19−13 in an offensive battle.
In their five−game winning streak, the Jumbos have scored 91 goals and soared to the top of the NESCAC standings in almost every offensive category. For now, it seems as if the issues that dropped the team to 0−2 in the conference standings are in the past. The win improved Tufts' record to 6−2 (3−2 NESCAC) and vaulted the team up to No. 10 in the national poll.
"We're really excited after every win and use the momentum after every game," senior co−captain Jenna Abelli said. "In the beginning, we were in a learning period, but now we've really built on team chemistry on and off the field, and it's one of the reasons we've been so successful."
Nine different Jumbos found the back of the net on Tuesday, with senior attacker Emily Johnson leading the way with six goals, sophomore midfielder Casey Egan adding four and classmate Lara Kozin assisting on five scores. Overall, the entire unit was unstoppable, as Babson only held a lead for 26 seconds — after having scored in the first 20 seconds of the game.
Perhaps it took the Jumbos a little time to warm up, but after they did, a blaze of goals put them up by five at the half, and the Beavers never got within four afterward.
"We had to figure out they were really fast in their midfield transition," said sophomore attacker Kelly Hyland, who had two goals on the day. "We needed to get back faster on defense and settle the ball more on offense to give the defense a better break."
The Jumbos answered the early Babson goal with three of their own in just over five minutes. Beavers junior attacker Alyssa Hood added back−to−back tallies to tie the game for the second and last time at 17:52 left in the first half.
The next five goals came from Tufts, three of which were scored by Johnson. Hood struck one more time in the half, but Johnson added her fifth of the day to send the Jumbos to the bench up 9−4.
Babson scored three goals in five minutes after the break, catching the Jumbos' defense flat−footed for the only time since the Beavers' quick opening tally. But any hint at a comeback was quickly dismissed with a Kozin goal. From there, the teams traded goals until Egan, sophomore Sterling Champion and Abelli — uncharacteristically silenced up until that point — combined for four unanswered, prompting Tufts to pull its starters and prepare to run out the clock.
A late three−goal rush by Babson didn't threaten the Jumbos' lead, and the buzzer sounded with Tufts on top 19−13.
"We came out really strong in the second half and paced our attack a lot more," Hyland said. "We gave a lot of people more opportunities. Babson had some free−position opportunities and started to penetrate the corners of our zone more, but the defense played really well and limited the shots."
Though the stat sheet speaks to a blazing offense, the defensive unit displayed an outstanding performance on the day as well. Tufts won the battle on the ground with sophomore midfielder Steph Perez picking up a season−high seven of the team's 24 ground balls, compared to the Beavers' 15. Meanwhile, junior goalkeeper Sara Bloom was stalwart between the posts, tying her season record with nine saves.
"Our zone played really well," said Hyland of the defense's unsung strength. "We haven't played a full zone in the past games, so keeping our zone going the whole game was really good. They were really quick on the slides and were able to help Bloom by putting them in bad spots."
Both attack and defense will have to be on their games again tomorrow as they prepare to take on the only undefeated team in the conference, national No. 1 Trinity. Despite their flawless record, the Bantams sit in the middle of the pack of NESCAC offenses. Trinity only has one player in the top 10 NESCAC point scorers, while Tufts boasts three in Johnson, Abelli and Kozin.
Where the Bantams do lead is in turnovers, caused turnovers per game and goals against average. It seems the game will be decided by the battle between Tufts' fast−paced, aggressive attack and Trinity's clean and consistent defense.
"I think this weekend will be a huge test of our abilities," Abelli said. "Learning each attacker's style of play and taking advantage of their strengths is key for success on offense. Everyone on our attack is able to contribute to scoring plays, which makes it difficult for teams to defend us."
Tufts boasts arguably the best defender in the league in senior co−captain Alyssa Kopp, and with the Jumbos' newfound zone success, they should be able to shut down a mediocre Trinity attack as they have in the past, having lost only once in the teams' last six meetings.
But Trinity's defensive unit, with star sophomore Liz Bruno, has shot the Bantams to the top of Div. III. The undeniably hot Jumbos will have to keep it up to rattle a defense that seems to have no weaknesses.
"Coming off the big win over Babson, who was a top−10 team, we're confident and ready to play Trinity," Hyland said. "We definitely have two big days of practice ahead of us, but we're going into it like any other NESCAC game — focusing on winning the small things like ground balls and keeping our offense dynamic. We're pumped."
