With a trip down to the Mid-Atlantic to take on two ranked opponents, the Tufts women’s lacrosse team faced a new level of competition. Yet, three days later, the team would be flying home to Logan happy, having racked up two double-digit victories and established themselves as a clear threat to Middlebury’s chokehold on the Division III lacrosse world.
When a team that finished the 2024 season 16–4 –– making the Elite Eight for the fifth consecutive season –– returns many of its starters from the quarterfinal, the No. 2 ranking in the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association’s poll seems appropriate. This weekend, the Jumbos more than proved their mettle by taking care of two opponents with double-digit victories to start their 2025 season.
With ten minutes left in their quarterfinal against Williams College, there was a question of which Jumbo would step up in crunch time. Would it be Scott Gyimesi, the junior who had already recorded 13 double-doubles during the season and 34 in less than three seasons? Perhaps it would be junior James Morakis, currently averaging over 17 points? Shockingly, it was an electric shooting performance sparked by the whiteout crowd from sophomore Zion Watt, who posted a career-high of 15 points, making four threes in the span of five minutes, sending the Jumbos on to an 80–70 win and earning them a trip to next weekend’s NESCAC semifinals at Wesleyan University.
Utter dominance. Delirium. Destiny. Those were the thoughts racing through the minds of the raucous crowd filling the bleachers inside historic Cousens Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon as Tufts destroyed Connecticut College 71–42 and improved to17–2 overall and 5–0 in NESCAC play.
When the Jumbos men’s basketball team returned to Medford, Mass. to resume their spring semester campaign on the Cousens Gymnasium floor on Friday night, memories of the struggles the first weekend of NESCAC play of the previous three years lingered as the Jumbos looked to sweep the opening weekend of conference play for the first time since 2019–20. When the clock hit triple zeroes on Saturday afternoon, the now No. 9 Tufts had taken care of business against Colby and Bowdoin, moving to 14–2 for the season for the first time since 2016–17.
Head coach Kyle Dezotell called it the best season he ever had. The record will say 12–0–6, an undefeated season. But after 110 minutes of enthralling play on the frigid terrain of Bello Field Sunday night, the number in the heads of the 2024 men’s soccer team will be 4–3. That was the score by which they lost the penalty shootout to the Buffalo State University Bengals, ending their NCAA campaign two weeks after their NESCAC title hopes were ended the same way by the Bowdoin College Polar Bears.
It was the game that everyone had circled on the calendar — a rematch of the NESCAC semifinal, where the Tufts Jumbos ended the Middlebury Panthers’ unbeaten streak in 2023. Both teams came in undefeated, and remain the only two without losses in the 10-team league. The Jumbos came into Saturday knowing that a win would clinch the NESCAC regular season title, with the Panthers needing at least a draw to keep their hopes of hosting a second consecutive NESCAC tournament.
The Jumbos closed a two-game homestand looking for a fifth consecutive undefeated week to begin October, having jumped to the No. 2 ranking in the country according to the United Soccer Coaches Poll. The squad — which had spent Tuesday night in a 90-minute dogfight with Babson College where Tufts had escaped with a 1–1 draw thanks to an 89th minute equalizer from sophomore superstar forward Xavier Canfin — was looking for their first clean sheet performance in a NESCAC game since Sept. 15 versus Connecticut College.
Tufts men’s soccer arrived in Clinton, New York seeking their first road win at Hamilton in seven years. Further, the team was stepping onto Love Field following a six-hour bus ride in front of a raucous crowd celebrating Family Weekend. The Jumbos needed to be at their best.
