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Tufts men’s lacrosse started the season under a cloud of controversy. It finished with perfection.
“I think our guys really didn’t have a choice but to move on and be focused.”
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The Tufts men’s lacrosse team could have been forgiven if the 2025 season started with a little lack of focus.
Weeks before the Jumbos’ home opener, the university released its report of an investigation into a voluntary team workout in September that left several players hospitalized with a dangerous condition called rhabdomyolysis.
Any worries about how well the team could refocus after an offseason of controversy were swept aside when the Jumbos won their first two games by a combined 29 goals.
What followed was the most dominant season in the program’s history. Tufts finished 23-0, capping the year with a second consecutive Division 3 national championship on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.
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“I think our guys really didn’t have a choice but to move on and be focused,” said coach Casey D’Annolfo, a Tufts alumnus. “I think if anything at all, it kind of made us more more resilient, and sort of more exclusive to the outside. I think it made us a tighter-knit group and a more resilient group.”
The Jumbos’ success started in midfield with junior Jack Regnery, the Division 3 Player of the Year, who led the NESCAC with 103 points. Tufts overwhelmed opponents with its scoring, firing in 418 goals — more than 100 more than any other NESCAC team.
Tufts had a couple of scares — mainly in overtime wins over No. 3 Christopher Newport University in March, and No. 10 Wesleyan and No. 6 Bowdoin (both double OT) in April — but nobody could get one over on the Jumbos.
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“When we encountered things during the season that were challenging, or in years past would have been considered as adversity … it sort of paled in comparison to what we went through in the fall,“ D’Annolfo said. ”So I think it calloused us in a way, and I think it made us more resilient in the springtime.”
By the time the postseason arrived, any thought that Tufts would be seriously challenged vanished.
The Jumbos romped through the NESCAC tournament, winning each game by at least nine goals, including a 12-goal demolition of Wesleyan for the championship.
Then came the NCAA Tournament. Rhodes College was first, victim of a 15-7 defeat. Next was No. 17 St. Lawrence, whose 14-8 loss was the closest any team would get to dethroning the champion. No. 7 Gettysburg College went down, 17-8, in the quarterfinals.
Fifth-ranked Bowdoin perhaps looked likeliest to give Tufts a real challenge in the semifinals, having come closest to an upset this season. Instead, the Polar Bears were subjected to a 26-11 demolition.
All that was left to do was finish the job in Sunday’s title game at Gillette Stadium, and the Jumbos did it convincingly. Tufts scored the first 10 goals and led, 14-3, at halftime, never being challenged by No. 11 Dickinson College in the final stretch of the Jumbos’ road to perfection. Tufts set records for goals and margin of victory in a Division 3 championship game.
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The final calculus on the Tufts postseason: eight games, eight wins, a combined margin of victory of 90 goals, and a dominant fifth national championship for the program.
“When we were playing those games, after the first couple minutes, we’re like, ‘OK, we’re dialed, we’re ready to go,’ ” D’Annolfo said. “So, you know, was I surprised? No, I wasn’t totally surprised, but I guess I was just happy that they were ready to answer the call.”
For a group of 16 seniors (including five Massachusetts natives), four seasons in Medford finished with a record of 82-7, three NESCAC titles, two national championships, and one perfect season.
“The senior class is incredible,” D’Annolfo said. “They’re incredibly resilient. We were wire to wire, No. 1 in the country, so you’re getting everybody’s best shot, the expectations from everybody are super high. And every time their best was needed, they provided it … Certainly, statistically, the most successful group to ever come through the program and they just answered every call at every turn.”
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