After losing to Amherst Saturday, the Cardinals returned home in the hopes of ending their two-game losing streak against the Tufts Jumbos. But despite another great game in net from Kate Jones ’06, the Birds succumbed 11-8.

The early goings looked promising as Becky Meredith ’06 hammered home a sharp pass from Cortney Tetrault ’07 less than three minutes in to put the Cards on top. Over the next 15 minutes, the two teams alternated goals, the last of which happened about midway through the first half when Laura Siegle ’06 found daylight and fired a shot past Tufts net minder Dana Panzer to give the Cards a 3-2 edge. It would be the last time Wesleyan had the lead.

90 seconds later, Tufts evened the count on the strength of Alyssa Corbett’s successful conversion of a penalty shot and then took its first lead after another 29 seconds when Lauren Murphy, who ran wild most of the day in netting a hat trick, beat Kate Jones after picking off a pass in the Jumbos defensive zone and took it the length of the field. Corbett scored again to give the Pachyderms a 2-goal cushion. Vee Jones ’05 narrowed the deficit on a beautiful right-to left dash, but the Jumbos beat Kate Jones twice more to head into halftime with a 7-4 lead.

After making game plan adjustments, the Cards came out firing to open the second half, starting just after the five-minute mark when Lauren Ogden ’07 managed to just barely push the ball past Panzer right out in front. After another 4:30 minutes, Vee Jones struck again, this time catching the beleaguered Jumbo goalie off guard with a dash around the left end, to narrow the Cardinal deficit to one with 20 minutes to play. Less than a minute later, Kate Jones stopped a penalty shot, and then Tetrault took to the sky to bury a high pass from Amanda Belichick ’07 to knot the score at 7 with 18:22 left. But after that, Tufts scored four of the last five goals in the contest, leaving the Cardinals unable to mount another comeback.

Despite the outcome, Kate Jones had a fine day in goal, stopping 15 of 29 shots, including several point-blank attempts from the Jumbos. She was helped immensely by Tetrault’s excellent all-around play, exemplified by her two goals and assist. Defensively, Jen Bianculli ’07, Vee Jones, Katharine Needham ’05, and Ellen Werble ’07, who scored her second lamplighter of the year early in the contest, all kept the Jumbo offense at bay, sealing off potential scoring lanes.

The Cards (6-5, 2-4 NESCAC) play again Saturday, this time on the road at Bowdoin, and return home Tuesday to host the Trinity Bantams.