LEWISTON — The best season in Bates field hockey history ended Sunday, against an opponent the Bobcats haven’t been able to solve.

Lilly Ragusa, Hannah Biccard and Reagan Malo had goals, and No. 6 Tufts University jumped on No. 4 Bates with two quick goals before closing out a 3-1 victory in the Division III NCAA quarterfinals.

The loss denied the Bobcats (16-4) their first trip to the national semifinals, and put the cap on a season that included a program high for victories and resulted in the school’s first NESCAC championship.

“I’m just so proud of this program, and our ability to continue to raise one level each year,” said coach Dani Kogut, whose team got its goal from sophomore Caroline Nowak. “Every year, they just set the stage for one more challenge, to get one level higher together, and it’s something they should all be so proud of.”

The way it ended, however, was all too familiar. Bates lost to Tufts (17-3) in the quarterfinals for the second straight year, and has fallen to the Jumbos 11 straight times dating back to 2017.

“We watch a ton of film as a team, as a coaching staff, and (there are) just little tweaks to our game that we’re doing to beat them,” said Tufts coach Tina Mattera, who led her team to the NCAA final last year. “They’re an unbelievable team, they’re an unbelievable defensive team, so just trying to figure out ways to get around them was our plan.”

Tufts quickly found success. The Jumbos earned a corner just 1:19 into the game, and converted when a pass from the top of the circle got by goalie Ava Donohue and Ragusa lunged to tap it in.

Tufts struck again moments later with a highlight-reel goal. Biccard went to a ball that was moving away from the goal on the right side and chipped a shot from a tough angle that hit high up in the netting for a 2-0 lead just 5:39 into the game.

“The one thing I thought was, ‘It has to be in the air,'” Biccard said. “It was luck. I’ll totally own that. … We were saying immediately afterward ‘Don’t get comfortable,’ because a lot of teams up 2-0, they think they’ve won it. Bates puts up a great fight, always.”

Sure enough, the Bobcats countered, as Haley Dwight’s quick shot on a corner was blocked and Nowak pounced on the rebound to make it 2-1 with 3:23 to go in the first.

“They’re just such competitors, they’re athletes and they know what it’s about,” Kogut said. “They just turned it on after that.”

Even after the nightmare start, against a team they haven’t been able to beat, the Bobcats felt momentum turning.

“We knew we were in it, for sure,” senior forward and co-captain Lucy Norris said. “I’m so proud of the way we played, never once letting the 2-0 get us down or thinking the game was over. We played 60 minutes as strong as we’ve ever played it.”

Bates had opportunities throughout the game, none coming closer than a Brooke Moloney-Kolenberg shot that skipped through the Tufts defense and was inches away from going in before back Claire Casey reached for a last-second defensive save late in the second quarter.

The Jumbos, however, brought pressure themselves, and crippled Bates’s comeback hopes when Malo deflected Katarina Villa’s shot in with 26.9 seconds left in the third.

“I know we’ve only surfaced our potential,” Dwight, a junior back and co-captain, said. “It’s hard right now … but moving forward, we get back to work and it’s going to be ours.”