LEWISTON, ME (November 16, 2025) – The Tufts University field hockey team will make a return trip to the NCAA "Final Four" after the Jumbos defeated host Bates College 3-1 today in the "Elite 8".
Head coach
Tina Mattera's Jumbos reach their seventh Final Four overall and second in a row. Tufts will play Christopher Newport University in the first national semifinal on Friday (Nov. 21) at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. The Captains defeated Salisbury University 1-0 in the Elite 8 today. Game time for Friday's semifinal is noon.
The Jumbos (17-3) got started fast today at Bates, earning a penalty corner 1:19 into the game and scoring on it. Junior
Lilly Ragusa inserted out to first-year
Eleanor Helm. She sent the ball left to sophomore
Eleanor Luft who ripped a shot towards goal. Senior
Hannah Biccard deflected the ball and it went to Ragusa, who was at the right post after the insert, and she scored for an early Tufts lead.
Four minutes later, the Jumbos built the margin to two. Sending the ball back to set up their offense, junior
Claire Casey passed right to senior
Gabby Sousa who was just a bit inside the center line. She fired the ball all the way into the circle, where it broke through a Bates stick and was controlled by Biccard. The senior co-captain moved outside for space against a defender and the Bates goalie charging toward the play, then she slammed her shot high into the far side for a 2-0 Jumbo advantage.
Bates would stem the Jumbo momentum with a goal of their own later in the first. On a penalty corner, sophomore Caroline Nowak inserted out to senior Brooke Moloney-Kolenberg. She sent a short pass to junior Haley Dwight who slid a shot on goal that was tucked home by Nowak at the goal line.
Defensive saves would play a key role in helping the Jumbos hold their lead. In the second quarter, a Bates shot by Sophie O'Sullivan was swept away by Jumbo senior
Camille Clarke at the left post. In the third quarter, Casey was at the right post to bat away a shot by Bates' Dwight.
Tufts then added a key third goal late in the third quarter. Ragusa inserted a corner out to junior
Katarina Villa. She sent the ball to the right side of the net where classmate Regan Malo was charging in. Malo dove to get a stick on it and scored with 29 seconds left in the period to give Tufts a 3-1 margin.
Bates began the fourth quarter with offensive momentum, but defensive saves again aided the Jumbo cause. On a corner, Moloney-Kolenberg took a shot that Jumbo senior goalie
Lydia Eastburn kicked up into the air. Clarke swatted it away, but the ball went right to Dwight and her accidental attempt had to be knocked away by Casey.
The Jumbos finished with a sizeable 20-9 advantage in shots and 11-7 in corners. Eastburn had two saves in the win, while Bates sophomore Ava Donahue stopped three shots at the other end.
Tufts eliminates Bates in the NCAA Elite 8 for the second straight year, including 2-1 in overtime in 2024. The Bobcats' 2025 season ends with a 16-4 record.
Watch the Tufts Press Conference ...
--JUMBOS--
