I really enjoy hearing Dave and Monika work the women's Final Four action each year, and what a pair of games they had to cover this afternoon. Two Nescac teams on a mission made two storied programs look like mid majors. I NEVER saw that coming. Gettysburg has three championships under coach Carole Cantele, the last one in 2018 over Middlebury, and played in Salem. In 2017 they won it over TCNJ, whose coach Sharon Pluger owns an 11-6 record in championship lacrosse action. I expect tomorrow's game to be one during which I spend as much time pacing as I do watching. It amazes me that I can actually sit still when I attend these things.
As Dave and Monika informed viewers this afternoon, tomorrow's combatants have already met twice this season. Middlebury beat Tufts 14-7 in regular season play. The Jumbos tied the score at 2 apiece at :58 of the first period, but Middlebury scored a go-ahead goal at :17 and it was all Panthers from there. In the Nescac championship game rematch which Tufts won 9-8, Middlebury's Jane Early was limited to just two unsuccessful SOG. Tied at the end of the third quarter, it took Tufts only three and a half minutes to build a three goal lead. The Panthers managed to cut it down to one at 9:22 and 2:44, but never closed the gap. The Middlebury win was on Tufts' Bello Field and Tufts prevailed at Middlebury's Kohn Field. Also worth noting, the Panther GK in the loss to Tufts was Gina Driscoll, in place of an injured Annie Enrietto. She did an outstanding job over those seven games, which included the decisive 16-6 Nescac semifinal win over Wesleyan, a team that had only trailed for two minutes in it's regular season 12-11 loss to the Panthers.
Middlebury walked off the field as national champions the last time it's season ended. Tufts lost the last championship game to be played, in a season in which the Panthers did not participate. They were also one of the semifinalists in 2019. Tufts has never won the women's title. Middlebury owns seven. Who wants it more? It should be one helluva game!
