Box Score 
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - Tufts Field Hockey was back in action Saturday afternoon in the NESCAC Semifinals as the tournament'a second-seed and took on the third-seeded Bowdoin Polar Bears. These two sides faced off in the final game of the regular-season with Bowdoin coming out on top 3-1. After 60 grueling minutes of back-and-forth play today the Polar Bears won by the score of 3-1 once again.
Tufts opened play with strong attacking pressure earning three penalty corners within the first five minutes, none more threatening than the third. Bowdoin senior goalie Maddie Ferrucci kicked away two great shots for her first of many saves in the game.
Pressure from Bowdoin at the end of the first led to a corner on which they played the ball out wide to Faith Jennings. She slipped it across the front of the cage for senior Abby Bashaw to tap home putting Bowdoin up 1-0 with just over a minute left in the quarter.
Both sides pushed back and forth to start the second quarter until Jennings steamed ahead on a counter attack down the left side. She pushed her second assist of the game across in an almost identical manner, this time to senior midfielder Manveer Sandhu who scored into a nearly empty net in front of her and put Bowdoin up by two five minutes into the second.
Tufts continued with good pressure on the Bowdoin goal and finally after their 10th corner, the Jumbos were able to cash in. A strong, low-driven strike from Reegan McCluskey went into the bottom left corner of the goal off of a Beth Krikorian pass with three minutes left until halftime.
Similar to the first half outside of the two goals by the Polar Bears, Tufts seemed to dominate the third quarter offensively with four shots to Bowdoin's zero alongside a few more corners for the Jumbos. The third was closed out with a Tufts man-advantage due to a Jennings green card, but Ferrucci and the Polar Bear defense held strong helping retain their one-goal lead.
Bowdoin would be the next to strike as their third corner of the match was played into Sandhu who shuffled the inbounding pass over to Georgie Coetzer for her third goal of the year leaving Tufts with seven minutes remaiming and down two.
Tufts' closest opportunity of the second half came from a jumble in front of the goal before the ball popped out skimming just right of the net with under two minutes remaining.
In a game that Tufts led Bowdoin in shots by a mark of 18-5, shots on goal 9-3, and penalty corners 14-3, Ferrucci (eight saves) was strong and Bowdoin ultimately made the most of their opportunities and advanced to the NESCAC Championship versus one-seed Middlebury on Sunday at 12 pm. The Polar Bears take a 14-3 mark into the final.
Tufts (13-4) will await a potential NCAA Tournament berth.
Written by Leo Freund, Athletic Communications Intern
