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Teams: Women's Basketball: Team
Overview
In five seasons under Coach Carla Berube, the Tufts University
Women's Basketball team has enjoyed the most successful eras of its
history. The program's 77 victories since the start of the 2002 season
are the most in a five-year span during the program's 35-year history at
Tufts.
The Jumbos enjoyed one of their most successful seasons last year. With
an 8-1 record in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC)
play, Tufts earned the #2 seed in the conference tournament for the
first time. They won their first NESCAC Tournament game in the
quarter-finals over Middlebury College, and followed that with a victory
against Bates in the semi-finals. That gave the Jumbos their first
appearance in the conference championship game. The team's 18-8 final
record tied for the second-most wins in team history with the 2003-04
squad, also coached by Berube. She has now coached three of the four
winningest teams in Tufts history.
Berube brought experience as a college champion, a professional player
and a Division I coach to Tufts. She played for four years at the
University of Connecticut and was a leading member of the Husky's 1995
undefeated NCAA National Championship team. In her senior year, she was
co-captain of a team that advanced to the Elite Eight and finished 33-1.
After graduating from UConn in 1997, Berube played for the New England
Blizzard in the American Basketball League. She then worked as an
assistant coach at Providence College for two years prior to her
appointment at Tufts in May 2002.
Her tenure has been marked by Tufts' reemergence in the New England
region. A school record nine-game winning streak highlighted the first
season under Berube (2002-03). The team's 6-0 start in 2004-05 was the
best at Tufts in 13 years. This past season the team narrowly missed
earning its first NCAA Tournament berth. Jumbo players earned four
NESCAC Player of the Week awards last season.
As members of NESCAC, the Jumbos play in the nation's most competitive
small college conference academically and athletically. Four teams from
the conference were awarded berths into the 2006 NCAA Tournament. League
leader Bowdoin played in the 2005 NCAA national championship game. In
addition to league games against these top programs, Tufts plays a
non-conference schedule including regional powers such as Salem State,
Emmanuel and Brandeis. In 2005, the team traveled to San Diego during
the semester break to play in the national Surf n Slam tournament.
The NESCAC is a group of highly selective liberal arts colleges and
universities that share an academics-first philosophy for
intercollegiate athletics. Basketball players at Tufts consistently
receive recognition for their academic efforts. Four team members were
honored on the NESCAC All-Academic team for 2006-07. Jessica Powers, a
2006 graduate, scored 1,174 points in her career and was chosen to the
Northeast Region All-Academic Team as a senior.
Located right outside of Boston, Tufts offers a well-rounded collegiate
experience to student-athletes. Within its picturesque small-college
campus, Tufts is a major university with "an unprecedented diversity of
programs, exceptional faculty and staff, and bright and talented
students," according to President Lawrence S. Bacow. The Athletics
Department sponsors a varsity program of 28 sports that is among the
most competitive in the NCAA's Division III. Tufts finished sixth in the
2006 U.S. Sports Academy Directors' Cup, the award presented annually to
the best overall collegiate athletics programs in the country. The
University's proximity to a world-class city renowned for its academic
institutions is also a major draw.
A new group of leaders will emerge this season for the Jumbos. Captains
Khalilah Ummah and Jenna Gomez blossomed during their junior seasons
last year and will lead the way in 2007-08. Junior Kimberly Moynihan is
poised to play a bigger role in the backcourt after a promising
sophomore season.
Kate Gluckman, a four-year letterwinner in basketball and as a
shot-putter at Tufts, is Berube's graduate assistant coach. Also an
All-New England shot-putter for the Jumbos, she received the
University's Kenney Award for positive attitude in 2004.
Tufts plays its home games in historic Cousens Gymnasium. With its
arched roof and bench seating, Cousens is one of New England's oldest
and most charming sites for basketball. During the summer 2005 it was
featured in the NCAA News as a "One of a kind" facility.
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