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.