COLLEGE FIELD
HOCKEY FINAL SCORE
NESCAC Championship Final
Tufts 3, Trinity 2
At Hartford, CT
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Game
Box Score
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Junior midfielder Jess Perkins
(Barrington, RI) scored a pair of goals in the first half
that helped her team take a 3-0 lead at the half, and the visiting
Tufts University Jumbos held on for a 3-2 victory over the Trinity
College Bantams in the finals of the New England Small College
Athletic Conference (NESCAC) Field Hockey Championship Tournament
this afternoon on Sheppard Field.
Tufts, ranked #4 in the nation, wins the NESCAC Championship
crown for the first time and earns an automatic bid to the NCAA
Division III Championship Tournament. Trinity, seeded #1 in the
conference tournament and ranked #5 in the nation, hopes to receive
an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament field. Tufts avenges
a 2-1 loss in overtime to the Bantams during the regular season and
improves to 16-1 overall. Coach Tina McDavitt's team lost in the
league finals at home last fall, 1-0, against Bowdoin. The Bantams
fall to 15-2 with the loss in their first-ever NESCAC Finals
appearance.
Tufts jumped on the Bantams immediately, scoring just 1:17 into
the contest on a well-executed penalty corner opportunity. Perkins
received the ball outside the top of the circle and passed to
junior midfielder Amanda Roberts (Wenham, MA) on
her right before darting back into the circle to receive a return
feed from Roberts and quickly shoot past Bantam sophomore goalie
Gina Dinallo (West Hartford, CT) for the game.htmls first goal.
The Jumbos continued to generate scoring chances during regular
play and on four other first-half penalty corners, while the
Bantams managed just one shot in the first 18 minutes before the
first of several rockets from the top of the circle by Bantam
junior midfielder Robyn Williams (Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) was saved off
the leg of Tufts sophomore goalie Marianna Zak (Concord,
MA) with 11:30 left before the half. The Bantams offense
picked it up after that and nearly tied the score again moments
later, but Zak stopped three consecutive Trinity shots on an
ensuing possession.
Perkins struck again on a penalty corner for Tufts, converting
this time on an assist by senior co-captain Margi Scholtes
(Grosse Pointe, MI) with 2:41 left in the half. Tufts
brought a 3-0 lead into intermission when junior forward
Tamara Brown (Annandale, VA) slapped in a pass
across the cage from right to left by senior forward
Michelle Kelly (Downingtown, PA) with just 21
seconds on the clock.
The Jumbos maintained their lead and the momentum for the first
half of the second stanza, but Williams broke the Trinity scoring
drought with a shot from the top of the circle on a Bantam penalty
corner with 12:33 remaining in the game. Bantam sophomore Payson
Sword (Princeton, NJ) initiated the corner to earn the assist, and
tallied a second helper on a similar play with 9:22 left on the
clock that pulled Trinity to within a goal at 3-2. Sword passed out
to Bantam junior forward Christy Bradley (Wellesley, MA), who
stopped the ball for Williams to blast past Zak and into the
goal.
Tufts' defense held the Bantams off the rest of the way,
however, as Zak made a key save on a shot from the left wing by
Trinity senior co-captain forward Carrie Wolcott (Hamilton, MA) at
the two-minute mark. Sword, Bradley, and Williams nearly tied the
contest on the same play as the second goal with 1:15 remaining, as
Williams' shot made it through the defense, but bounced wide left
of the cage. Tufts kept possession for the final minute of
play.
Zak matched her season-high with eight saves in the Jumbo cage.
Trinity's Dinallo had four of her five stops in the second half.
Tufts finished with a slim 18-16 advantage in shots, and penalty
corners were tied at six each.
Tufts will be making its fifth NCAA Tournament appearance. Last
season, they advanced all the way to the NCAA Championship Game,
where they lost to Bowdoin 3-2 in overtime.
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Tufts Jumbos - 2009 NESCAC Champions
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