Medford, MA – Williams women’s soccer defeated the Tufts University Jumbos today.  First-year Hana Tomozawa scored the only goal of the game just after the break off of a pass from Caitlyn Clark. With the win, the Ephs move to 8-2-1 (5-1-1 NESCAC) on the year, while the Jumbos find themselves at 6-3-2 (4-2-1 NESCAC).

Although the Ephs outshot the Jumbos 9-6 in the first half, neither team was able to finish.  Keeper Kristin Wright made five saves for the Jumbos.  Laura Wann stopped Tufts’s only shot on goal of the game when Alex Michael had a look at the net in the 28^th minute.  Going into halftime, the score was still 0-0.

Coming out of the break, the Ephs stayed aggressive on the offensive end. Tomozawa’s shot came just 27 seconds into the second half.  Clark had a perfect cross, and Tomozawa made the first-time finish for the Ephs from just inside the near left post to give them the 1-0 lead. The goal was the first of her career. 

Said Coach Michelyne Pinard about Tomozawa’s goal and the overall performance of her first-years, “Hana’s been playing really great recently, so it was nice for her to score.  I think the first-year class has come so far since the beginning of the year, and I think they’re really going to start to take off.”

Seniors Brett Eisenhart and Sachi Siegelman each had four shots in the contest for the Ephs, who outshot the Jumbos 17-10 on the day.

With the win, the Ephs passed the previously second-ranked Jumbos in the NESCAC standings with three games left in the regular season.  The Jumbos fall to fourth.

Said Pinard about the standings, “We have a lot of respect for all the teams we play in the NESCAC.  Being in second place right now doesn’t mean a whole lot.  We’d like to end the year in second place – or higher.  I think we know that game-to-game anything can happen, and we’re just focused on that right now." 

The Ephs look for their third straight win tomorrow at Connecticut College at 11:00.

Looking ahead, Pinard added, “We’re going to have to do a better job taking care of the ball tomorrow.  Our goal is to get better every day, and we’ve done that in different ways.  I’m hoping we can put that all together tomorrow.”