MEDFORD, MA (November 2, 2024) – For the second time in four days, the Tufts University field hockey team won by shootout on Saturday. This time the Jumbos took a 2-1 shootout victory over Amherst College in the quarterfinal round of the NESCAC Tournament at Ounjian Field.
On Tuesday night at Ounjian, Tufts had won 3-2 in a shootout against Bowdoin College. Before that, the team hadn't competed in a shootout since November 2018 when the Jumbos defeated Salisbury University to win an NCAA Elite Eight contest.
Today's victory sends Tufts (14-2) to the conference semifinals next Saturday. The third-seed Jumbos will face two-seed Williams College at top-seed Middlebury College starting at 1:30 PM. Amherst (9-7) will hope for an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament.
The Mammoths had tied today's game at 1-1 with 14 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. On a corner inserted by Kate Smith, Isa Lattuada took the ball just right of the top of the circle and fired on goal. First-year Caroline Busler was able to lay her stick on the ground and put a deflection into the cage ultimately sending the game to overtime.
Tufts had taken a 1-0 lead 10:42 into the opening quarter.
Gabby Sousa connected on a beautiful long pass across the middle of the field to
Hannah Biccard. On a long run to the circle, Biccard went right to beat a defender and from just inside the right edge she sent a shot that bounced past the goalie for the Jumbo lead.
Tufts dominated the two 10-minute overtime periods with advantages of 11-0 on shots and 4-0 on corners (all in second OT). However, Amherst's Grace Puchalski made eight overtime saves to keep the game tied.
Tufts would dominate the shootout as well, with
Andrea DelGiudice,
Kylie Rosenquest and
Hannah Murray scoring on the host's first three attempts, and goalie
Lydia Eastburn stopping all three of Amherst's shots. The 3-0 shootout win sent the Jumbos to the semifinals.
Eastburn, who was outstanding in Tuesday's shootout round against Bowdoin as well, made three saves in 80 minutes of regulation and OT today. All came in the fourth quarter when Amherst had four of their five penalty corners on the day. Puchalski registered 13 total saves in the Amherst cage.
Shots finished 21-7 Tufts and corners were 9-5 in favor of the Jumbos.
Head coach
Tina Mattera's Tufts team is challenging for their third NESCAC title. Top seed Middlebury and #5 seed Bates College, who also won by shootout today, will play in next Saturday's other semifinal.
--JUMBOS--
