MEDFORD, MA (November 3, 2022) -- With their win last Saturday, the Jumbos women's soccer team has advanced to the NESCAC final four, as they pursue their first NESCAC championship since 2002.
Game Details
Opponent: at Amherst College
Date: Saturday, November 5, 2022
Time: 11 a.m.
Location: Amherst, Mass. – Hitchcock Field (
Directions)
Live Coverage: Live Stats –
Live Video
The Jumbos take on Amherst, the NESCAC one seed, on Saturday morning at 11 am. Amherst finished the season with a record of 14-2, and 8-2 in the NESCAC.
Also remaining in the final four are the six seed Wesleyan and five seed Trinity, who will face off at Amherst on Saturday at 1:30 pm.
Earlier this year, Tufts handed Amherst their only home loss of the season, as they shutout the Mammoths and won by a score of 2-0. The first Tufts goal came in the 25th minute off the foot of
Erin Duncan, her fourth of the season at the time, and they added some insurance in the 74th minute from defender
Caroline O'Neill, her second of the season. Amherst outshot Tufts in the game, 14-10, but each team had six shots on goal in the matchup. Additionally, Amherst had seven corner kicks in the matchup as compared to Tufts' two. Tufts' goalies,
Hayley Bernstein (starter) and
Kaelin Logue, combined for six saves in the match, with five made by Logue and one by Bernstein. The Mammoths goalie, Mika Fisher, made four saves in her 90 minutes.
Each team is looking to carry forward the momentum from their matchups this past Saturday. The seven seed Jumbos were able to take down the two seed, Williams, thanks to goals from
Elsi Aires and
Maddie Pero, and the eight save effort of
Hayley Bernstein. Amherst is riding high off of their victory against Connecticut College, which they won with ease by a score of 3-0, good for their eighth straight victory. Their goals came from Sarah Sullivan, Liza Katz, and Charlotte Huang.
Tufts is led by Junior midfielder
Thalia Greenberg and senior captain midfielder
Maddie Pero. Greenberg is coming off of a regular season that saw her score seven goals and dish out an assist, good for a team lead of 15 points. Pero has contributed five goals and an assist of her own in the season, the most recent having come in the 84th minute against Williams this past Saturday.
Amherst is led by Junior forward Abby Schwartz, who is coming off of a stellar season, netting 11 goals and eight assists thus far, good for a total of 30 points. They also have midfielder Patience Kum and Liza Katz with six goals. Kum has contributed four assists and Katz three, good for season point totals of 16 and 15, respectively.
Each team's goalkeepers have also had terrific seasons thus far. Amherst's Mika Fisher has started each of the team's 16 games and has wrapped up a total of 56 saves while holding a save percentage of .836. Her record of 14-2 is tops in the NESCAC, and she has logged 1341:30 in net for the Mammoths. Tufts' goalies, Bernstein and Logue, have save percentages of .833 and .865 respectively. Bernstein has started ten games and holds a record of 5-3-1, while Logue has started six games and holds a 5-1-1 record. Logue has saved a total of 32 shots, and Bernstein has saved 25.
Upon victory on Saturday, the Tufts vs. Amherst matchup's winning team will take on the winning team in the Trinity vs. Wesleyan matchup in the championship, on Sunday at 12 p.m.
The fifth seed Trinity is coming off of a season in which they have gone 7-3-6, with a 4-2-4 record in the NESCAC. They defeated the fourth seeded Middlebury Panthers by a score of 2-1 on Saturday afternoon, with goals coming from Mia Fusco in the 34th minute and Dot Tilden in the 58th minute. The Bantams are led by junior midfielders Gabby Grattan and Cassie Lee, both of whom have accumulated six points thus far in the season. Grattan has netted three goals on the season, which leads the Bantams, and Lee has scored two goals with two assists.
In their previous matchup with the Bantams on October 2nd, the Jumbos fell by a score of 1-0. The only goal of the game came in the 58th minute from Grattan, their scoring leader. Trinity was outshot by Tufts 14-6 in the matchup, with four of Tufts' shots on goal and two of Trinity's on goal. However, the one that went in was all they would need to prevail at Bello Field.
The number six seed Wesleyan Cardinals go into Saturday's matchup with a 7-4-5 record, with a 4-3-3 record in the NESCAC. They won their quarterfinal matchup against third seeded Bowdoin Polar Bears, in a 0-0 match that proceeded to penalty kicks. The Cardinals won the shootout by a score of 5-3 in an instant NESCAC tournament classic.
They are led by senior forwards Grace Devanney and Dani Milovanov, each having scored six goals so far this season. Devanney has tallied four assists and 16 points for the season, while Milovanov has three assists with 15 points.
When the Jumbos and Cardinals met on September 13 at Wesleyan, it was the Jumbos who won by a shutout score of 2-0. The Tufts goals were scored by
Thalia Greenberg, the Jumbos goals leader, and defender
Caroline O'Neill. Both goals were scored in the second half, with Greenberg's having come in the 54th minute and O'Neill's in the 70th.
Tufts will look to win Saturday against the tournament host team Amherst and face the winner of Trinity and Wesleyan in the championship game on Sunday.
TUFTS VS. AMHERST SERIES
Series Record (since 1980): 19-18-7
Last Tufts Win: September 17, 2022, 2-0 in Amherst
Last Amherst Win: October 16, 2021, 2-1 (OT) in Medford
Current Streak: Tufts, 1
Largest Margins (since 2000): Tufts, 2-0, 2022; Amherst, 3-0, 2019
--JUMBOS--
