Male Athlete of the Year: Scott Barchard, Hockey
After shattering the program's saves record in his freshman year, Scott Barchard this year returned as a sophomore as one of the best goalies in the nation. Before winter break, Barchard led Tufts to a 5-2 record, during which he set a school record with 63 saves against Saint Anselm College in a 4-3 win that earned him NESCAC Player of the Week. He continued his dominant play throughout the season to lead all NCAA Div. III goalies with a .939 save percentage. The mark is all the more impressive given that he was bombarded with 1,050 shots, a couple hundred more than any other goalie. No goalie on record in New England Div. III history has made more saves in a single season.
He minded the net during all of Tufts' 12 wins, which helped the Jumbos to their first winning season since 2000-01. Barchard also became the most decorated player in the hockey program to date, being named to the USCHO All-East Second Team, the New England Hockey Writer All-Star Team, the All-America Second Team East and the All-NESCAC first team.
Female Athletes of the Year: Tamara Brown, Field Hockey and Dena Feiger, Volleyball
Rising senior forward Tamara Brown won the NESCAC Player of the Year by finishing among the national leaders in points scored with her total of 55. She was named an NFHCA First Team All-American, after having earned Second Team honors last year. Graduating senior Dena Feiger, meanwhile, became the first Tufts volleyball player to be given Second Team All-American status, even as she had already secured the NESCAC and New England Player of the Year titles. Feiger, a setter, dished out over 11 assists per set, the second-highest mark in the nation.
The field hockey team (18-2) and the volleyball team (31-5) both advanced to the NCAA Tournament. Brown, along with graduating seniors Amanda Russo and Michelle Kelly, made up an offense that dominated the conference. The field hockey team managed to win the NESCAC Tournament, with Brown scoring goals in every NESCAC postseason game. Feiger was flanked by rising seniors Caitlin Updike and Dawson Joyce-Mendive, as the Tufts attack led the conference in kills per game. Though Tufts lost in the NESCAC finals, Feiger stepped up her game in her final tournament, averaging 12.4 assists per set, and will graduate as one of the top setters in Tufts history.
Coach of the Year: John Casey, Baseball
While he may shy away from the spotlight, there's no denying that the 2010 season was a year of historic proportions for coach John Casey.
On May 9, Casey was at the helm of Tufts' first NESCAC Championship since 2002 and, thanks to a 6-1 win in the championship game over Bowdoin, got his 500th career win in the process. Casey's 27th season at Tufts has, statistically, been his most successful. The Jumbos enter the NCAA Tournament with a program-record 31 wins and five losses, the fewest defeats since Tufts went 11-1 in 1948.
After graduating just two positional starters from the 2009 team — which went 19-19 and nearly saw its then-streak of 17 above .500 seasons come to an end — Casey led the Jumbos to new program marks in hits, runs, wins, RBIs and strikeouts. As of press time, Tufts was also on pace to set the new school record for batting average.
Tufts opened up the season on its spring trip down south at a blistering 8-2 clip and then steamrolled through NESCAC play with a 10-2 mark, including a three-game sweep of two-time defending conference champion Trinity. Moves by Casey, such as pitching eight different pitchers against Bowdoin in a "staff day," helped guide the Jumbos to the NCAA Tournament, just their third berth in the past 30 years.
Team of the Year: Men's Lacrosse
The 2009 season left the men's lacrosse team with a bitter taste in its mouth. The Jumbos lost in the NESCAC Championship game to Wesleyan 14-10 and after a first round bye in the NCAA Tournament were swept out of the tournament by Western New England at home, 12-9.
How did the Jumbos respond this year? By shattering the school record with 16 wins and losing just one game en route to the team's first NESCAC Championship and another bye into the second round of the NCAA Tournament — the team's third trip to NCAAs in the last four years. The squad, additionally, had four players record at least 40 points, the first and only time this has happened since the 2000 season — the first year for which statistics are available online.
Led by 2010 New England Player of the Year D.J. Hessler, a rising senior, nationally ranked No. 6 Tufts capped off its outstanding conference season with a thrilling 13-12 victory in the NESCAC final, storming back from an 11-9 deficit and scoring four goals in the fourth period to beat Middlebury. Rising senior Matt Witko scored two of his team's four goals in that period as Tufts held on for the victory.
That was just the crescendo of a record-breaking season for coach Mike Daly's team. The Jumbos set a school record for longest winning streak by getting revenge on WNEC on April 13, getting a hat trick and two assists from Hessler in the 13-10 win.
Despite Conn. College and its graduating senior attacker Steve Dachille spoiling the Jumbos' shot at an undefeated season with an 8-6 victory on April 17, Tufts racked up six more wins to head into the NCAAs on a high note. That included a stirring 14-13 victory in overtime over Bowdoin in the team's last regular season game, as rising junior Kevin McCormick kept the Jumbos' streak intact.
Male Rookie of the Year: Matt Rand, Men's Track and Field
Matt Rand opened up the year by surprisingly coming in as Tufts' fourth place finisher at the Jumbos' opening cross country race. By the end of the spring track and field season, he was an integral part of the Jumbos' distance crew.
Rand and fellow rising sophomore Kyle Marks became consistent scorers for the Jumbos in the fall and helped Tufts finish third in the NESCAC Championships. Rand was the third finisher for the Jumbos, and 18th overall, with a time of 27:20 in his first collegiate championship race.
He didn't let up when it came to track season, earning points for Tufts in the team's biggest races. He was third in the 5,000-meter run at Div. III New Englands in indoor and came in fifth in the same race outdoors with a time of 15:07.33 when Tufts hosted the event at Dussault Track on April 29.
Rand also played a key role in helping Tufts earn a 27th-place finish, its best spot in three years, at All-New Englands the next weekend, with his third-place finish in the 10K.
Female Rookie of the Year: Kelly Allen, Women's Track and Field
The women's track team just keeps finding impact freshmen in field events. One year after now-rising junior Nakeisha Jones shattered the school record in the triple-jump en route to winning a New England title, coach Kirsten Morwick found another gem: Kelly Allen.
The rising sophomore had a great debut in the indoor season, highlighted by her third-place finish in the shot put at New Englands and a fifth-place finish in the ECAC Championships. But it was in the outdoor season that she really excelled.
Allen broke a 20-year-old Tufts record in the discus at the Snowflake Classic on April 3, winning the event and qualifying provisionally for NCAA's with her throw of 138'10". But that mark would not last longer than a week, and Allen continually kept upping the ante for herself, finally culminating in a 143-foot, 5-inch mark to win at the NESCAC Championships, where she also broke teammate Sarah Nolet's program record in the javelin with a 120-foot, 6-inch throw.
She was also one of three Jumbos to win a New England Div.-III title this spring with her victory in the discus. Allen threw her name into the Tufts record book and was an All-NESCAC performer in all three of her events. Most recently, she took first in the discus at the ECAC Div. III Championships.
