BRUNSWICK, ME (April 24, 2024) -- The No. 2 Tufts University women's lacrosse squad scored 12 of game's first 13 goals against host and No. 24 Bowdoin College Wednesday evening at Ryan Field, breezing to a 17-7 road New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) victory to finish the 2024 regular season.
With the victory, Tufts (13-2, 8-2 NESCAC) completed the regular season deadlocked with Wesleyan University for the second-best record in the conference, but Tufts will enter the 2024 NESCAC Tournament as the No. 3 seed and will play No. 6 seed Trinity College (8-7, 4-6 NESCAC) Saturday on Bello Field at noon in the quarterfinal round.
Everything was working for the Jumbos early Wednesday against the Polar Bears, as Tufts took the lead for good 3:23 into the game as
Madeline Delaney netted a goal from
Ella Lesperance to get the offense cooking.
Margie Carden scored her first goal of the game at 9:47 of the first quarter to make it 2-0, which was then followed by saves from
Pascale de Buren to keep Bowdoin off the board.
Late in the period, Carden tallied again at 1:33 mark of the opening stanza followed 49 seconds later by a man-up goal from first-year
Emily Leschin to make it 4-0 after the first 15 minutes. Bowdoin finally got on the board with their first possession of the second quarter, but a barrage came minutes later by the Jumbos as Tufts scored on five straight shots over a stretch of 3:29 to up the lead to 9-1.
Carden cashed in again to put the Jumbos in double-digits with 4:32 to go in the first half, and first-year
Schuyler Lloyd finished a pass from Carden to start the running clock just before the halftime break.
Both teams scored twice in the third quarter, and Tufts led by as much as 11 after
Grace Frerichs scored with 7:54 to play as the Jumbos breezed to victory.
Carden had six points on the night for Tufts, scoring four times to go with her two assists, adding a draw control and ground ball. Carden now has 188 goals for her career, and is just four shy of the Tufts all-time goals record of 192 held by Emily Games '21.
Lesperance had five points on three goals and two helpers, while Delaney totaled two goals, two ground balls and two draw wins. Frerichs recorded her first multi-goal game for the Jumbos with two goals, finishing with two ground balls, a caused turnover and draw control as well.
Allie Zorn handed out two assists on the night, and 10 total Jumbos scored as they outshot their hosts 28-27 on the evening.
Emma Joyce led Tufts with five draw controls, and defenders
Genna Gibbons,
Kathryn Fernandopulle and
Nicola Sommers all had two grounders. In net, de Buren made four stops while allowing just one goal in the first 30 minutes, and first-year
Sophie Powless recorded five saves in the second half.
Ellie Schofield led all scorers with five goals for Bowdoin (8-7, 4-6 NESCAC).
For more information on the postseason NESCAC Tournament, click on the tournament website
HERE.
--JUMBOS--
