Tuesday Night in Medford: Unbeaten No. 1 Tufts Put a Perfect NESCAC Record on the Line Against Bowdoin
Tuesday night is the kind of game the regular season exists for. No. 1 Tufts host Bowdoin at 6:00 p.m. local time in Medford on Tuesday, with a perfect conference record on the line for the hosts and a team on an eight-game winning streak coming the other way.
Tufts are 14-0 overall and 9-0 in the NESCAC, and they clinched the tournament’s top seed on Saturday with a 3-2 win at Williams. They had to earn it. Williams led twice, outshot Tufts 14-8 and won the corner count 10-7, but junior Riley Schmidt scored with 2:19 left in regulation to keep the Jumbos unbeaten and stretch their winning streak to 19 games. Three of their conference wins this season have come in overtime, so this is a side that knows how to win ugly as well as well.
Bowdoin arrive with their own momentum. The Polar Bears, ranked third in the Division III NPI rankings, came from behind to beat Connecticut College 2-1 on Saturday, scoring twice in the third quarter to make it eight straight wins and officially clinch a home quarter-final. Maddie Mrva led all players with six shots and scored the tying goal, Eva Filipponi made three saves, and Bowdoin won the corner count 9-5.
So Tuesday is a free hit in one sense and anything but in another. Bowdoin’s quarter-final at Ryan Field on Saturday 31 October is already booked, opponent to be confirmed, so there’s no season on the line here. But a win at the No. 1 team in the country, on the road, the night before the play-offs, changes how a team walks into Saturday. And for Tufts, a perfect 10-0 NESCAC record is right there, one win away, against the team ranked third in the country.
For our money, Tufts at home, with that 19-game streak and the habit of finding a late winner, are hard to pick against. But Bowdoin have won eight straight for a reason, and if this one is tight late, the Polar Bears have shown they don’t blink either.
Related links:
https://sportscursor.com/tufts-clinch-nescac-top-seed-division-iii-saturday-clinches-24-october-2026/
https://sportscursor.com/us-college-nescac-saturday-bowdoin-middlebury-wins-24-october-2026/
https://sportscursor.com/oua-final-toronto-35th-title-shootout-york-26-october-2026/
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