Women’s lacrosse heads to the NCAA Final Four and ultimate frisbee, sailing, tennis, and track and field compete in nationals, too
The Tufts women’s lacrosse team will play in its first NCAA Final Four after the Jumbos earned an 11-6 victory over York College in a quarterfinal game at home on Bello Field on May 19.
Tufts (19-2) will play Salisbury in the national semifinals on May 25 in Ashland, Virginia. The Sea Gulls were 8-7 winners against Amherst College in their NCAA quarterfinal match.
The Jumbos were led by a tremendous defensive effort, which included eleven saves by senior goalkeeper Audrey Evers (nine in the second half). Tufts held the Spartans scoreless for a more than thirty-minute stretch in the middle of the game, during which they scored six unanswered goals.
Freshman Colette Smith led Tufts with three goals, while senior Maddy Schwartz aided the defensive effort with five ground balls and a caused turnover. Senior Dakota Adamec won four draw controls.
Other Tufts athletes will be competing at the national level, too. Tufts’ men’s and women’s ultimate frisbee teams will take part in the 2019 USA Ultimate College Championships May 24-27 in Round Rock, Texas.
Both of Tufts’ ultimate teams compete in USA Ultimate’s Division I and are among twenty teams to advance to the national championship. The Tufts teams are one of just three college teams in New England competing at the championships. They join Brown and Northeastern on the men’ side and Dartmouth and Northeastern for women’s.
The twenty teams are split up into four pools of five teams each and will play a round-robin schedule against the other teams in their pool. The top 12 teams out of pool play advance, with four pre-quarters matches played on May 25 and then the quarterfinals beginning on May 26. The championship match is scheduled for May 27.
The Tufts women’s sailing team will race at the 2019 Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) / Sperry Western semifinals starting on May 21 in Newport, Rhode Island. The national semifinals are divided into two eighteen-team regattas contested. The top nine teams from each group will then advance to the finals round—an eighteen-boat regatta—on May 23 and 24. The championship is being held at Sail Newport, New England’s largest public sailing center, located inside Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island.
The Jumbos earned New England’s eleventh and final berth into the national semifinals with their finish at the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association Championship on April 20-21.
Sophomore Boris Sorkin of the men’s tennis team was selected to compete in the singles competition at the upcoming 2019 NCAA Division III championships. He was one of thirty-two players nationally in Division III invited to compete at the individual championships May 24-26 at Stowe Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
This will be Sorkin’s first trip to the NCAA Division III Championships. He will be the first Jumbo to play in the NCAA singles tournament in fifteen years, since Rifat Perahya, A05, in 2004.
The women’s tennis team’s freshman doubles duo of Maggie Dorr and Caroline Garrido have also been selected to compete at the NCAA Division III championships. Dorr and Garrido are one of sixteen doubles teams from across the nation who qualified for the doubles portion of the NCAA individual championships, to be played May 24-26 at Stowe Stadium in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
This is the third time in the last four seasons that Tufts has entered a team into the NCAA doubles competition. While compiling an 11-5 overall record together during the 2018-19 season, including 8-2 in NESCAC matches, the Dorr-Garrido combo has had several wins against fellow NCAA qualifiers.
Seniors Josh Etkind, Henry Hintermeister, and Benji Wallace will close their Tufts track and field careers by competing at the 2019 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships May 23-25 in Geneva, Ohio.
Etkind will run in the 110-meter hurdles, Hintermeiser is in the javelin throw, and Wallace qualified in the pole vault. All three Jumbos hit their 2019 outdoor qualifying marks at the New England Intercollegiate Amateur Athletic Association Championships hosted by Southern Connecticut State University on May 10-11.
Seniors Kylene DeSmith and Kelsey Tierney and junior Rhemi Toth of the women’s outdoor track and field team will represent the Jumbos at the 2019 NCAA Division III Championships in Geneva, Ohio this week, too.
DeSmith will make her first career appearance at the NCAA championships competing in the heptathlon. Tierney has qualified for her first NCAA outdoor meet in the 1,500 meters. She was tenth in the NCAA indoor 3,000 meters (10:08.26) in March and has run in three NCAA cross country meets. Toth, who qualified in the 800 meters, will run in her third NCAA meet overall, but first outdoors.
