MEDFORD, MA (November 8, 2023) – Senior co-captain
Andrea DelGiudice and junior
Kylie Rosenquest both scored twice as the Tufts University field hockey team opened NCAA Tournament play with a 5-0 first-round victory over the University of Southern Maine on Wednesday night at Ounjian Field.
The Jumbos (12-5) advance to the "Sweet 16" where they will play Rowan University on Saturday at Babson College. The Profs also won 5-0 in their first-round game versus Hartwick College today. Southern Maine, the Little East Conference champions who made NCAA's for the first time since 2003 this fall, finished its year at 15-8.
Tufts matched its season-high output for goals tonight, while not allowing a shot on goal defensively. The hosts finished with a 27-2 advantage in total shots, and a 9-1 lead for penalty corners.
DelGiudice got the Jumbos going 11 minutes into the action. Sophomore
Meghan MacDonald broke up a Huskie clear and pushed it up to classmate
Hannah Biccard along the right sideline. Biccard entered the circle low and fed the ball back to DelGiudice coming into the middle where she sent a shot home for a 1-0 Tufts lead.
The Jumbos would get their second just a minute later on a corner. DelGiudice took the insert and passed it to sophomore
Gabby Sousa. Her blast from just inside the right curve was deflected in by senior
Rachel Scrivanich who was stationed in front of the goal.
Sousa assisted on two goals in the game. She next sent a ball from outside the circle on the right towards the goal which Rosenquest deftly tipped along the way to put it past Southern Maine goalie Julianna Kiklis. That gave Tufts a 3-0 margin five minutes into the second quarter.
Southern Maine would get its first shot attempt of the game by Hannah Banks after the third Jumbo goal, but it went wide. Then late in the third, DelGiudice notched her 10
th of the year on a corner that she drove in after senior co-captain
Kate Lee had settled the ball at the top of the circle following the insert by senior
Ashley Zolin.
Four minutes into the second half, Rosenquest tallied her second of the game and Tufts' fifth and final goal. Senior
Lainie Pearson took a restart to just outside the top of the circle and sent it in to Rosenquest in the middle of the goal area where she swept it in for a 5-0 advantage.
Southern Maine would get a penalty corner attempt and shot by junior tri-captain Sage Drinkwater late in the game. However, Tufts soon ran out the clock for the 23
rd victory in their NCAA history.
Tufts and Rowan will play for the first time since 1998, with a berth into Sunday's "Elite 8" on the line.
Watch the Tufts Press Conference ...
--JUMBOS--
