MIDDLEBURY, VT (May 6, 2023) – The No. 7 Tufts women's lacrosse team avenged a loss earlier this season to No. 5 Wesleyan University in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) semifinal matchup at Peter Kohn Field in Middlebury, VT Saturday afternoon, 13-11.
The Jumbos raced out to a quick 4-0 lead as four different players scored.
Caroline Walter got Tufts started as
Allie Zorn found her.
Margie Carden doubled the Jumbos lead less than two minutes later as she assisted on the next Tufts goal, scored by
Caroline Conaghan to give Tufts a 3-0 lead. With Tufts on the player-down,
Emma Joyce's free-position goal made it 4-0 and made Wesleyan take a timeout. Molly Greer and Gil Horst got the Cardinals on the board and cut the Jumbo lead in half. Joyce then scored again to give the Jumbos a 5-2 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Carden brought the Jumbos lead back to four as
Madeline Delaney found her for her 50th goal this season. Back-to-back Cardinals goals were answered by a
Genna Gibbons free-position goal that gave Tufts the 7-4 lead. Wesleyan responded again to cut the lead to two, but Joyce scored her third goal of the game to make it 8-5 Tufts. The Cardinals would finish the second quarter by scoring the last three goals to tie the game at eight apiece heading to halftime.
The third quarter saw both teams score quickly as Wesleyan got on the board first, but Gibbons fed Walter for her second goal of the game to tie it up at nine. The defense for both teams took over as neither team scored for the next 10 minutes. For the Jumbos
Courtney Kaufman made two clutch saves and
Kathryn Fernandopulle caused two turnovers to keep the Cardinals off the board. Wesleyan would score off a free-position to give themselves a 10-9 lead as Kaufman denied Horst at the buzzer to keep the score where it was heading to the fourth quarter.
To start the fourth quarter, Wesleyan had another chance to take a two-goal lead but Kaufman ame up with another big save. Walter responded by tying the game at 10 with her third goal of the game and following the draw control win by Joyce, Carden scored her goal of the afternoon to regain Tufts' lead at 11-10. After end-to-end action that saw both teams have opportunities, it was Joyce who gave the Jumbos the lead as her 45th goal of the season found the back of the net.
Kaufman continued her stellar play as she made two more great saves and it was Walter's fourth goal of the game that put it out of reach as Joyce found her to give the Jumbos a 13-10 lead with 1:25 left in the game. Wesleyan would add another goal and Tufts would see out the rest of the game to win 13-11.
Tufts (14-3) was led by Walter and Joyce who each scored four goals on the afternoon. Carden added three goals while Gibbons and Conaghan each scored a goal.
Kate Wujciak had three draw controls while Fernandopulle had five caused turnovers and four ground balls. Kaufman was big in net all game as she made a career-high 16 saves in the game.
Wesleyan (14-3) was led by Bridget Horst and Kate Balicki who each scored two goals and had an assist. Chessy Greenwald also had three points with one goal and two assists. B.Horst also had 10 draw controls in the game.
Tufts will look to capture its third straight NESCAC Championship as they will take on No. 1 Middlebury College tomorrow at 12 p.m. in action from Peter Kohn Field in Middlebury, VT.
--JUMBOS--
