Tufts splits NESCAC games, thanks to Nowak's last-minute goal

The women's lacrosse team rebounded from Saturday's heartbreaking 7-6 loss to No. 8 Amherst to defeat No. 9 Bates 6-5 on Tuesday in its last game on Bello Field this season. The Bates win brings No. 18 Tufts' record to 7-6 overall and 3-5 in the NESCAC. Amherst is now tied with Colby for third in the NESCAC with a 6-2 conference record, while Bates falls to 5-3.

Sophomore midfielder Caroline Nowak struggled throughout the Bates game, missing a team-leading eight shots, but her teammates and coach kept faith in her when they allowed her to take the last shot of regulation with 10 seconds remaining in the game. Her last-minute goal from the right of the net earned the Jumbos the win, preventing overtime against a tough NESCAC opponent.

"It was really nice because I hadn’t necessarily been shooting my best game," Nowak said. "It was great because at the end of the game, even though I didn’t have the best performance, my teammates had my back. They gave me the ball, and they had the confidence in me to be able to take that shot."

With the score tied at five and only a few minutes remaining, the Jumbos were able to gain possession and begin running out the clock for the last shot. However, Bates senior tri-captain Mikaela Bradley caused a turnover and corralled the ball for her team. Within the minute, the Jumbo defense was able to knock the ball away from junior Sydney Cowles and a mad dash for the ground ball ensued — both teams aware that they were fighting for the final possession. The scramble ended when Tufts first-year Hedy Veith finally came up with the ball and coach Courtney Farrell called timeout with 1:16 left in the game.

"I think our defensive unit has really come together, and we have a lot of young leaders on the team," senior tri-captain Brigid Bowser said. "Hedy [Veith] is just an amazing defender, and she’s really stepped up in a leadership role on defense. Our defensive unit is just very strong; it’s one of the strongest units I’ve played with in four years here."

The Jumbos came into the second half trailing 3-2. At 20:42, Bates junior Kaileigh Maguire fouled Bowser who netted the ensuing free position shot. First-year attacker Dakota Adamec won the draw for Tufts and, despite a pair of errant shots from Nowak, the Jumbos maintained possession long enough for Bowser to earn her second goal of the day at 18:07. Bowser's goal put the Jumbos ahead, and they would not trail for the remainder of the contest, as they traded goals with the Bates Bobcats until time expired.

"I think what we really did well in the last game was we would make a mistake and then pick up on someone else’s mistake, so if we had one turnover the defense would get the ball back," Nowak said. "I think we’ve really worked on that, and that’s why we won the last game."

Senior attacker Alex Briody evened the score for the Bobcats at 13:08, but Tufts junior Kate Mackin answered back with her 11th score of the season and second of the day on an assist from Adamec just over two minutes later.

Mackin scored her first goal — and the first of the game — at 26:12 in the first half. Adamec was the only other Jumbo to score in the period. Despite the relative lack of scoring, the Jumbos held the Bobcats to two goals until the very last second of the half. First-year attacker and midfielder Sydney Howard capitalized on a last-second free position shot to put the Bobcats ahead 3-2 at the break.

Tufts finished with 15 ground balls to Bates' nine. The Jumbos also committed a third as many turnovers as the Bobcats — just six compared to the Bobcats' 18. Having led 26 to 14 in shots and six to four in draw controls, the Jumbos clearly came into the game fired up and dominated possession.

"On Tuesday, we ran towards winning," Bowser said. "We knew we were capable of coming up with the win. We worked hard to get the win instead of running away from losing, which on Saturday is kind of what we did. We were a little nervous on Saturday, and all of the nerves were out of our system by Tuesday."

For her part, Bowser contributed five of the Jumbos' 15 ground balls. She leads the team with 24 against conference opponents.

"Ground balls is all a mentality and just wanting the ball more than the other team because it’s 50/50," Bowser said. "Every ground ball I go to I just try to make sure it’s me versus that girl, and I try to come up with it as much as I can."

First-year goalie Audrey Evers allowed five goals on nine shots, saving four, while her counterpart and Bates' senior tri-captain Hannah Jeffrey saved 13 of Tufts' 19 shots on goal. Jeffrey leads the NESCAC in save percentage (61.7 percent), saves (79) and is third in goals against average (5.83). Evers is a respectable fifth in saves (52) and 14th in save percentage (38.5 percent).

Tufts was unable to finish against Amherst, allowing a lead as large as three goals to dissipate in the second half when Amherst scored four unanswered. The Amherst Purple & White dominated possession the second half, winning every important draw control and keeping the Jumbos off of the scoreboard for the last 20 minutes of the game.

Amherst senior tri-captain Rachel Passarelli's second goal of the game, assisted on by peer tri-captain Mia Haughton, tied the game at six with just over four minutes remaining. Sophomore defender Rowena Schenck won the draw control for Amherst, and they burned time until receiving a free position shot with 45 seconds to go. At 41 seconds Passarelli's shot went wide. At 31 seconds, sophomore Julia Crerend's shot was high. Evers saved Passarelli's second attempt at 19 seconds. Just when it looked like the Jumbos might hold the Purple & White onslaught off and force overtime, Crerend fired a shot past Evers for the game-winner to deflate the Jumbos.

At the beginning of the second half the Jumbos had led 5-3. Bowser netted a free position shot to extend Tufts' lead to its largest margin, but junior midfielder and defender Hanna Krueger kept the game within reach for Amherst with her second goal only 21 seconds later. Amherst won the draw control but possession swung back and forth for 13 minutes without a goal before Haughton broke the stalemate and brought Amherst within one.

The first half featured significantly more scoring for the Jumbos as they kept pace with the Purple & White for the first 20 minutes and then pulled ahead 5-3 at the end of the period. Krueger scored first for Amherst at 25:43.

Senior tri-captain Caroline Ross rocketed a shot past senior goaltender Christy Forest to put Tufts on the scoreboard at 21:54. Passarelli nailed her first look of the day 28 seconds after Ross's goal. Nowak forced a turnover on Amherst's next possession, and Ross finished the play with a second goal, assisted by sophomore Taylor Meek.

With her team up a player after Amherst's Schenck received a yellow card, junior Caroline Kingsley scored her second goal of the season and secured the lead for the first time all game. Amherst tied it up, but Ross added two more goals towards the end of the period to end the half up two.

The Amherst game was the only one this season in which Tufts held a NESCAC opponent to fewer than 10 points and lost. As the season has progressed, the Jumbos have held opponents below 10 points more consistently. Both NESCAC opponents that Tufts faced in March put up 10 points or more, but the team improved its defense in April, allowing just two NESCAC opponents out of five to exceed 10 points.

"Our defense as a whole looks amazing," Nowak said. "They’ve really taken on the whole [idea of] ‘team defense’ instead of one person doing it all, and that’s what I think has made our defense so great. They’re communicating a lot and, just the nature of lacrosse defense, you have to be there for each other on slides and crashing and stuff like that, so the fact that they’ve really got their chemistry down, and they’re just working as a team; it looks great."

The Jumbo captains continue to anchor the team, as Ross' offensive potency complements Bowser's speed and hustle in the midfield. Ross leads the NESCAC in points with 31, and she is tied for third in assists (12) and fifth in goals (19). Bowser is second in the league in ground balls (24) and tied for second in caused turnovers (16). She is no slouch on offense either, having scored 15 goals this season, tied for 12th in the NESCAC.

"I’m a middie, so I like to run and getting the ball down the field is my goal," Bowser said. "I just want to make sure the ball can get down the field safely because I know we have [Caroline Ross] on attack to take care of it once it gets down there. So if I can get the ball down to her I know we’ll be good."

Tufts next take the field against Wesleyan (1-7) on Saturday and then finish their regular season at Bowdoin (2-7) on Wednesday. The Jumbos must win at least one of the games to remain in the playoff picture.