Slow starts have been a problem for the No. 7 men's lacrosse team this season. But for the Jumbos, it was an anemic second quarter that did the squad in against a rowdy Wesleyan team on Saturday afternoon, leading to an 8-7 loss on the road.
Senior Jeff Gioncondi secured 11 of 19 faceoffs for the Cardinals, giving them much-needed possessions and allowing the opponent to keep the ball out of the Jumbos' sticks. Tufts did not do themselves any favors either, as coach Mike Daly's squad committed an ugly 27 turnovers on the day, including several errant passes in settled offensive situations and hurried feeds in transition.
"We didn't play our game yesterday. We were very sloppy. We need to learn from our mistakes and put Saturday's game behind us," senior short-stick defensive midfielder Sam Diss said.
Though the Jumbos struggled in the second half, Tufts did jump out to an early three-goal lead, shutting the host Cardinals out for the first 15 minutes, with freshman keeper Alex Salazar stepping up to make a whopping nine saves.
Junior attackman Beau Wood opened things up five minutes in, taking a feed from sophomore attackman Cole Bailey and driving in to slip a shot by Wesleyan junior keeper Mark Simmons. Driving down the right wing, sophomore midfielder Peter Gill ripped another shot past Simmons to push the Jumbos' early lead to two.
Then, with four minutes remaining in the opening quarter, a heads-up play gave Tufts its shot. Sophomore defender Garrett Read barreled in to control a loose ball at midfield and pushed it up to the offensive unit. From there, Bailey took control, hitting sophomore Chris Schoenhut with a feed for the Jumbos' third goal of the day.
The second stanza told a different story, however, as four different Cardinals found the back of the net in a five-goal run that sent the Jumbos reeling. Playing without top senior defenseman Mike Robinson, the Cardinals finally began to piece things together on the defensive end, lending their attacking unit the time and space to barrage Salazar with shots on cage.
Junior Graham Macnab was the first to strike for the Cardinals, sending a low shot past Salazar at the 13:20 mark. Giambianco doubled the Wesleyan score when he sent a bounce shot from the right wing past Salazar, and senior Max Rosenman tied things up just four minutes into the period. Giambianco and junior Remy Lieberman buried two more goals to put the Cardinals up by two before the Jumbos found a way to stop the bleeding.
As halftime approached, senior attackman Andrew Fiamengo drew triple coverage and worked the ball to an open Wood. With 19 seconds left, the junior polished off a look from 15 yards out on the left wing to send the Jumbos into intermission trailing by just a single goal.
The Cardinals, however, didn't relinquish their lead again and did not let Wood's goal give the Jumbos any sort of momentum in the second half. Wesleyan struck first in the second half, when sophomore Quentin DellaFera scored to make it a 6-4 ballgame.
Shortly after, junior midfielder Dan Leventhal netted a score to pull the Jumbos back within one, but Lieberman extended the Wesleyan lead once again, this time slicing a shot past junior goalie Patton Watkins, who replaced Salazar between the pipes for the second half.
In need of some momentum, the Jumbos tallied another score, this time from Schoenhut, who finished a look past Simmons. Again trailing by one, the Jumbos were unable to equalize as the final minutes of the third quarter waned.
Senior quad-captain long-stick midfielder Brendan Hanley opened up the third quarter with a devastating goal. On a fastbreak, Wesleyan pushed the ball up with numbers. Hanley, a pole, controlled the ball at midfield and drove forward, taking it to the rack to extend the Cardinals' advantage back to two.
As the final minutes wound down, the Jumbos found themselves down two and in desperate need of a goal. The Tufts defensive unit, which saw action for much of the afternoon, was gassed, and Wesleyan used fresh legs to push the tempo.
The Jumbos squandered several opportunities to score, failing to keep a handle on the ball. Finally, Fiamengo broke through on a fastbreak to put one in the net and pull Tufts within one with just over a minute remaining.
Tufts' frustration came to a head when Read was awarded a slashing penalty with 12 seconds on the clock, but Wesleyan's offensive unit patiently waited out the final seconds with a game of keep-away to deny the exhausted defensive unit.
"The loss does not define us and we know we didn't play to our full potential," Fiamengo said.
"We need to get better and learn from our mistakes quickly this week," he said. "We don't have time to dwell on it, and we need to focus purely on Bowdoin."
Despite the heavy-handed implications of Saturday's loss, Tufts is focused on just one thing: winning out in Wednesday night's tilt in Brunswick.
Going into their upcoming matchup against the Polar Bears, the Jumbos know they have to win, and a loss could send the brown and blue as low as a fifth seed in the upcoming conference tournament.
For the majority of the Tufts fan base, which is used to hosting the NESCAC tournament in a comfortable No. 1 seed position, this is unfamiliar territory.
