They had endured their toughest stretch of the season, but their spirit was not trampled. The Judges came out strong against visiting Springfield College on Wednesday and came away with a 2-0 win over the Pride. Joe Jorge '05 and Yuval Ezer '06 both scored goals for Brandeis. Matt Kaplan '05 had two saves for his first shutout of the year. The Judges snapped a four-game losing streak and rose to 7-9 on the season.After four losses in a row, the team was ready for offensive action against the Pride at Gordon Field. The Pride faced an onslaught of Brandeis attacks, as the Judges registered a season high 22 shots in the game. Ezer scored a beautiful game-clinching goal in the 71st minute. ..It was a three-person effort as midfielder Jim Puritz '05 sent the ball flying itnto the corner where Adam Gutman '08 crossed it in front of the net. Ezer scored the goal by taking Gutman's pass and heading it past the goalie, raising the score to 2-0. Ezer has seven goals and nine assists on the season, good for a team-leading 23 points.

Coach Mike Coven recently moved star forward Shelton Stewart '06 to the defensive back sweeper position, hoping to solidify the defense. A member of the Jamaican national team and seventh on Brandeis' all time scoring list, Stewart was originally a defensive back with his national team, but has become a prolific scorer at Brandeis. By moving Stewart to defensive back, Coven was able to move Joe Jorge '05 to midfielder, giving the Judges more height in the middle of the field.

"[Stewart's] been magnificent at sweeper," Coven said. "With [Stewart] at sweeper, we can attack from the back of the field, and with [Jorge] at midfield we win more balls in the middle of the field."

The move paid off, as earlier in the game Jorge lined up and shot, launching the ball past the goalie and directly into the right corner of the net to put the Judges up 1-0. It was the first goal of the season for Jorge, who spends most of his time leading the defense. Charles Goodhue '06 and Ezer took assists on the play.

The Judges have had time off since dispatching the Pride and will need it in their upcoming UAA competition. The Judges host Emory University on Friday at 1:30 p.m. before hosting Carnegie Mellon University on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Both teams are nationally ranked. The Judges need to win all three of their remaining conference games in order to finish above .500 in the UAA. The Judges had hopes of making the NCAA tournament earlier in the season, but the four game losing streak buried those hopes.

"We dug ourselves into a pretty big hole by losing to some teams early on in the season that we shouldn't have lost to," Coven said.

While an NCAA tournament berth is no longer likely, a winning UAA record could earn the Judges an at large bid to the ECAC tournament.

"This team deserves to play in a tournament," Coven said. "I've never given up on this team, they've never given up on themselves. Everybody on the team knows how good we are.