Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
The Tufts Daily
Where you read it first | Friday, March 29, 2024

Tufts brings home Div. III Title

2014-04-12-MLax-v.-AmherstDSC_5859
Senior Cole Bailey looks to go by a defender in the men’s lacrosse team 25-12 victory over Amherst at the Fan the Fire event on April 12, 2014.

The 2014 men's lacrosse team made its home debut against Stevens Institute of Technology in front of 350 loyal Tufts fans on March 11. At that time few people outside Medford could have imagined that less than two months later this team would be playing for the Div. III title in a Baltimore stadium that holds over 70,000 fans.

Tufts senior midfielder Peter Gill opened up the scoring for the Jumbos in the first minute of the Div. III championship game, but for the rest of the first period the Salisbury Sea Gulls offense controlled the tempo.

The first period ended with the Sea Gulls leading 3-1, and Salisbury added a fourth unanswered goal at the 11-minute mark of the second period to give the team a commanding lead.

With the Jumbos beginning to lose control of the game, senior attacker Cole Bailey was called upon to ignite Tufts' struggling offense.

"There were a couple of reasons we were down but we just weren't making enough plays to get momentum going," head coach Michael Daly told the Daily in an email. "After our first timeout, we just seemed to settle down. Cole just took the ball and attacked the cage. That seemed to loosen our guys up and we just started making more of the plays we were capable of."

Bailey fired a shot past the Salisbury goalkeeper at the seven-minute mark of the second period to end Tufts' 22-minute scoring drought. Just over a minute later, senior tri-captain midfielder Beau Wood (E '14), the Jumbos' all-time leading goal-scorer, caught a pass from Bailey and found the back of the net.

"Coach always tells us that lacrosse is a game of runs and we just did our best to stop their run and start our run," tri-captain defender Dan Alles (LA '14) told the Daily in an email. "The easiest way to do that is to just focus on the little things. We weren't worried about the score — we were just worried about getting the next face off, the next ground ball and the next goal."

After the Sea Gulls' scored their fifth goal of the half, Bailey swung the momentum back in Tufts' favor with consecutive passes to junior attacker John Uppgren that led to goals. Despite the rocky start, Tufts was tied with Salisbury going into halftime.

In the second half, Tufts proved that it was truly the best Div. III team in the country with arguably its most dominant period of the season. Junior attacker Ben Andreycak opened up the second half scoring with two goals in the first three minutes. Salisbury then scored its lone goal of the period at the nine-minute mark before Tufts answered with five in a row. Bailey and Uppgren assisted on two goals each to give Tufts a commanding 12-6 lead entering the final period of the 2014 season.

Playing in the last game of his career, goalkeeper Patton Watkins (LA '14) was crucial in the fourth period. He made eight saves and along with Tufts' formidable defense, held Salisbury to just three goals in the final 15 minutes of the game, giving the Jumbos a 12-9 victory.

"Our defense had a lot of new faces to start the year, and those guys, led by coaches Rynne, Callahan and Carr, did an amazing job of improving throughout the season," Daly said. "Our style puts a lot of pressure on the [defense], and those guys and coaches have to be mentally and physically tough. I was proud to see those guys get the credit they deserve."

Tufts finished the season on a 14-game winning streak which the team will try to continue in the spring of 2015.

"We are always in pursuit of an unattainable perfection," Daly said. "We will surely need to improve in every facet of the game. [The players] work so hard in the classroom, certainly in their lacrosse lives, and they have done a remarkable job in the community. It is a privilege to do what I do, where I get to do it, and who I get to do it with."

One big question mark for the 2015 season is how Tufts can replace the seniors who graduated this past spring. Six of the players who started the title game will not be suiting up for the team next year.

While the Jumbos will have to move forward without many of the team's stars, the graduating class will be able to look back at this season and know that it has helped to cement Tufts legacy as one of the top Div. III lacrosse programs in the country.

"Tufts lacrosse has defined who I am as a person," Alles said. "I'll forever be grateful for the friendships and bonds I have formed with my teammates and coaches. Tufts lacrosse has some of the hardest working and committed players in the country. The sky is the limit for this team. One couldn't possibly ask for better teammates and a better senior class to take over the leadership role for next season."