By Jim Fenton
MEDFORD, Mass. -- The nationally ranked Tufts University women's soccer team halted Bridgewater State University's five-game winning streak Tuesday night.
The Jumbos, who moved up to No. 9 in this week's national Division 3 poll, scored twice in each half and dealt the Bears a 4-1 loss at Bello Field.
Tufts (11-2-1) is on a seven-game winning streak and is 7-0 at home this season.
BSU had won its first five games in October and was 5-0-1 since its last loss, a 2-1 setback to Roger Williams on Sept. 25.
Tufts had scored shutout wins over the Bears, 4-0 and 6-0, the past two seasons.
BSU (8-4-2) was outshot, 25-8, with the Jumbos holding a 16-3 advantage in shots on goal and a 9-3 edge in corner kicks.
Tufts took a 1-0 lead 18:40 into the game when junior Caroline Kelly (Southborough, Mass.) scored her sixth goal of the season.
Coming in from the right side, junior Elsi Aires (Westborough, Mass.) sent a centering pass inside the 18 to a wide open Kelly who easily deposited a shot into the back of the net.
The Jumbos made it 2-0 just over six minutes later as sophomore Reese Birch (Mission Hills, Kan.) converted off a corner kick with a header attempt that bounced inside the right post. Kelly, who took the corner, collected the assist.
Aires added her eighth goal of the season at 61:43 to give Tufts a 3-0 lead in the second half. The assists went to graduate student Nicola Sommers (Branford, Conn.) and senior Jordan Cushner (Mill Valley, Calif.).
The Jumbos' final goal came at 70:25 with Birch recording her fourth goal of the season. Sophomore Emily Nicholas (Avon, Conn.) sent a long pass down the middle of the field to Birch who got behind the defense and beat the BSU netminder with a shot inside the right post.
BSU avoided the shutout in the final minute when junior Olivia Robarge (Pepperell, Mass.) scored her team-high 10th goal at 89:20. Senior Sydney Dewhurst (East Bridgewater, Mass.) sent Robarge in on a breakaway with a long volley from the defensive zone. Robarge got around the oncoming Tufts goalkeeper and buried a tough-angle shot into the empty net.
Robarge took over the team lead with 23 points. She had two of the Bears' three shots on goal.
Dewhurst recorded her team-best tenth assist of the season and 19th of her career. She tied Lisa Allen (1991-94) and Christine Soucy (2006-09) for fifth place among the Bears' all-time assist leaders.
Dewhurst is just the sixth player in program history to record double digit assists in a season joining Kimberly Rhodes (2002, 2003), Emma Sanders (2018, 2019), Kathy Conley (1991, 1992), Mackenzie Hatfield (2013) and Michelle Belcher (2022). Rhodes, Sanders and Conley each accomplished the feat twice with Rhodes setting the school single-season record with 12 assists in 2002.
BSU junior goalkeeper Logan Levesque (Bristol, R.I.) made a season-high 12 saves while Tufts sophomore goalkeeper Gigi Edward (Menlo Park, Calif.) had two stops.
The Bears now have a showdown for first place in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference as they travel to Westfield State at noon on Saturday.
The Owls, who captured the MASCAC Tournament title a year ago, are in first place at 5-0 with defending regular season champion BSU right behind them at 4-0-1. The Bears have three games left in the regular-season.