Men’s and Women’s Lacrosse move forward, and Baseball wins NESCAC Championship and heads to NCAAs
Tufts lacrosse players had a good week, as the men’s and women’s teams advanced in their NCAA Division III championship tournaments, and the Tufts baseball team beat Middlebury College to take the conference championship and head to the NCAAs.
The men’s lacrosse team scored eleven of the first twelve goals on their way to a 19-4 victory over Stevenson University in the third round of the NCAA Division III Men’s Lacrosse Championship on May 11 at Bello Field.
The Jumbos (19-1) move on to the quarterfinals on May 15, when they host NESCAC rival Amherst College. The Mammoths defeated fellow conference foe and defending national champion Wesleyan University 16-13 in the third round.
The women’s lacrosse team (17-2), one of the top four seeds in the NCAA tournament, set a school record for wins in a season with their 18-0 victory over Plymouth State University in the second round at Bello Field on May 12. They became just the fourth team in the thirty-five-year history of the NCAA Division III Championship to shut out an opponent, the first shutout since Mount Union blanked Albion 18-0 on May 10, 2015.
Tufts will host the women’s lacrosse regional NCAA round at Bello Field this coming weekend, May 18-19. The Jumbos will welcome The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), St. John Fisher, and York (Pa.) to Tufts. The Jumbos will face off with TCNJ at 11:30 a.m. on May 18, followed by the St. John Fisher and York match. The winners will meet in the national quarterfinals on Sunday at 4 p.m. with a berth into the Final Four on the line.
Tufts will travel to Cortland, New York, for a four-team regional May 17-19 at Cortland State. The Jumbos (29-9) will play Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) runner-up Penn State Harrisburg (32-13-1) in the opening round on May 17. Tufts is in the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in the last six years and six of the last ten.
The softball team’s season came to an end on May 13, as Eastern Connecticut State University sophomore pitcher Morgan Bolduk, the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, allowed only four hits and one run as the Warriors won the NCAA Softball Medford Regional title with a 5-1 victory over Tufts.
In the double elimination tournament, Eastern Connecticut (32-11) entered the day needing just one win to clinch the title. Playing as the home team on Tufts’ Spicer Field, they scored three times in the bottom of the first inning. Tufts, who needed to win twice on May 13, had a solo home run from senior catcher Christian Cain in the second. The Jumbos (32-10) were playing in their second straight NCAA regional final.
Women’s tennis also fell in the NCAAs, losing 5-0 on May 12 to Middlebury College at the Proctor Courts in the NCAA Tournament regional final. The Jumbos end their team schedule with a 9-10 record, but played in the regional final for the fourth straight year.