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Teams: Women's Basketball: Team
Overview

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The
Tufts University women's basketball team is coming off the best season
in the program's 36-year history. Head Coach Carla Berube's Jumbos
advanced to the NCAA Tournament "Elite 8" and finished with a 26-4
record last season. With all but two letter-winners returning for the
2008-09 season, Tufts looks to continue developing its national profile.
The Jumbos opened last season with a school record 12-game winning
streak, including victories versus regional powers Brandeis University
and Salem State College. Tufts went on to finish second in the New
England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) with a 7-2 mark and
reached the final in the conference tournament for the second
consecutive season. The program earned its first-ever NCAA Tournament
berth, but that was only the beginning.
The team had an outstanding run in the NCAA's. After holding off local
rival Wheaton College in the first round, they defeated site host Mount
St. Mary College, 54-38, in the second round. Moving on to the
sectionals, Tufts upset University of Mary Washington, a "Final Four"
participant a year ago, 48-45 in the "Sweet 16." Against host Messiah in
the "Elite 8," Tufts was in the game all the way, but could not overtake
the Falcons and lost 55-49. The Jumbos far surpassed the previous best
record by a Tufts team of 19-3 set in 1986-87.
Berube was selected by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association as the
Region 1 (New England) Coach of the Year for the 2007-08 season. She was
also voted NESCAC Co-Coach of the Year. Berube recruits Khalilah Ummah
and Colleen Hart were the NESCAC Player and Rookie of the Year,
respectively. Ummah was also the conference's Defensive Player of the
Year. Tufts finished the season with national top 20 statistics for
scoring defense, field goal percentage defense and rebound margin. The
Jumbos were the #12 team in the final D3hoops.com national poll.
In six seasons at Tufts, Berube has coached the Jumbos to a 103-48
record for an outstanding .682 winning percentage. Additionally, Kate
Gluckman, her top assistant for the last two seasons, was recently hired
as the head coach at Grinnell College. Berube is a 1997 UConn graduate,
where she was a member of the 1995 NCAA Division I national championship
team. She played professionally in the American Basketball League before
getting into coaching as an assistant at Providence College. She was
hired at Tufts in 2002 and her tenure has been marked by the team's
emergence regionally and now nationally. She was the NESCAC Coach of the
Year in 2006-07.
The Jumbos had enjoyed one of their most successful seasons in 2006-07.
With an 8-1 record in NESCAC play, Tufts earned the #2 seed in the
conference tournament and made 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 four of the five most successful teams in Tufts history.
The Jumbos are 44-12 overall and 15-3 in the league over the last two
seasons.
As members of NESCAC, the Jumbos play in the nation's most competitive
small college conference academically and athletically. Three teams from
the conference were awarded berths into the 2008 NCAA Tournament, with
the Jumbos advancing the furthest. In addition to league games against
these top programs, Tufts plays a non-conference schedule that includes
two tournaments and games against regional powers such as Emmanuel. 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. Three team members were
honored on the NESCAC All-Academic team for 2007-08. 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 15th in the
2008 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.
The Jumbos return all but two players from last season's "Elite 8" team.
They will be poised and quick in the backcourt with Hart and junior
Vanessa Miller, who emerged late last season after overcoming injuries.
Senior Katie Tausanovitch (9.7 points per game, 7.8 rebounds last year)
and junior Julia Baily (7.4 ppg, 5 rpg) have experience and touch in the
frontcourt. Senior co-captains Kim Moynihan and Stacy Filocco will
continue to do a little bit of everything on the wing, in addition to
playing leadership roles.
Ian Davis and Sarah Pool are in their first year as Coach Berube's
assistants this season. Davis was a varsity athlete at Mount St. Mary
College and was a student assistant on the women's basketball team. Pool
is a 2006 graduate of the University of California-Berkeley, where she
started at point guard for the Golden Bears.
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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