The third-seeded women’s soccer team (11-3-1) suffered a tough 2-1 loss to sixth-seeded Tufts (9-6-0) last Saturday at home in the NESCAC quarterfinal. Tufts will go on to play top-seeded Middlebury in the conference semifinals this weekend.
Bowdoin will hold out until the NCAA at-large selections are announced on Monday with the hope that they will get a tournament bid. Other than the winner of the tournament, none of the NESCAC teams are guaranteed an automatic bid, but the fact that Bowdoin placed third in the conference may earn them a spot in the NCAA tournament.
The Polar Bears beat Tufts on the Jumbos’ turf last Wednesday with a 3-2 win to end the regular season. However, they were unable to secure a second win during the elimination game.
Bowdoin maintained control during the first half but were unable to score off of any of its five shots-on-goal. According to Head Coach Brianne Weaver, Tufts clearly had a specific game plan that they executed well.
The intensity picked up during the second half, and the Jumbos scored the first goal of the game at 60:49. Shortly after, Bowdoin responded with a goal by defender Becky Stoneman ’14, who crossed the ball into the box. The ball ricocheted off a Tufts defender’s foot and bounced into the net.
Three minutes later, the Jumbos regained the lead as Tufts’ Caitlin Brandman scored off of a low pass through the Bowdoin defenders and goalie Bridget McCarthy ’16.
“During the second half, once everything opened up, we played at a frantic pace and that’s not where we play our best,” said Weaver. “That’s not our best soccer. We were thrown off of our game and were not able to make a difference by the end of regulation.”
Stoneman echoed Weaver’s sentiment about the team’s emotions during the game.
“A lot of times in must-win situations, it’s really easy to become frantic and get nervous and let the mental side of things take over,” said Stoneman. “Tufts is not the most skilled team, and we got caught up trying to play their game. We were not able to control the ball and play our game.”
The team will continue to practice until the bids are announced on Monday with the hope that they will play in the NCAA tournament next weekend.
“No matter what happens with the bid, we are using this as a chance to reflect on that experience [Saturday] and be better in the future, whether that’s next weekend or next year,” said Weaver.
Although they are holding out hope for a bid, the team must face the possibility that Saturday’s loss could mark the end of the 2013 season.
“We had a really positive season,” said Weaver. “We brought in a number of new players in the first-year class and integrated them as quickly as possible. They did a great job of being thrown into the mix, and that was a tribute to both the leadership of the upperclassmen and the stepping-up of the first years.”