Teams: Field Hockey: Schedule & Results

COLLEGE FIELD HOCKEY FINAL SCORE
Tufts 2, Bowdoin 0

At Brunswick, ME
Friday, October 30, 2009

Game Box Score

Margie Scholtes scored her third penalty-stroke goal of the season

BRUNSWICK, Me. -- The Tufts University field hockey team scored a pair of second-half goals to take a 2-0 victory over Bowdoin in the regular season finale for both teams on Friday. The fifth-ranked Jumbos, who already had secured the second seed in the conference tournament, improve to 13-1 (8-1 NESCAC) while the 12th-ranked Polar Bears dip to 9-5 (4-5 NESCAC) and grabbed the sixth seed.

Tufts and Trinity both finished with identical conference records of 8-1. In head-to-head competition, Trinity defeated Tufts 2-1 in overtime to earn the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament. The Jumbos will host seventh-seed Wesleyan in a first-round game on Sunday at 1:00 pm. Bowdoin will travel to Amherst for a 1:00 pm opening round game on November 1.

Friday's Tufts-Bowdoin contest was a rematch of the 2008 NCAA Championship Game, won by Bowdoin 3-2 in overtime. The Jumbos had defeated Bowdoin 4-3 in Brunswick last fall to earn the #1 seed in the conference tournament. However, the Jumbos lost to the Polar Bears in the conference and national championship games. On Friday, Tufts was the better team, also winning shots 11-3 and penalty corners 8-2.

After a scoreless first period, Tufts notched an early tally in the second period to grab the lead. In transition, junior Tamara Brown (Annandale, VA) looked to feed a pass to a teammate on the far post, but a Bowdoin defender reached to block it, deflecting it past goaltender Emily Neilson and into the cage for a 1-0 lead. The Jumbos extended their lead late in the half, when a penalty shot was awarded to senior co-captain Margi Scholtes (Grosse Pointe, MI). Improving to a perfect three for three on penalty strokes this season, Scholtes deposited a shot inside the left post, tipping off the pads of Neilson into the net to close out the scoring.

Neilson ended with four saves for Bowdoin while sophomore Marianna Zak (Concord, MA) stopped one shot in goal for the Jumbos. The shutout was the third in a row for Tufts, and the eighth of 14 regular-season games.

Coach Tina McDavitt's Tufts squad is now 17-1 in NESCAC over the last two seasons, including last year's 9-0 finish. The Jumbos are 24-3 against league foes over the last three seasons.

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