On April 30, 1983, the women’s lacrosse team defeated Williams at home, 13-12, in its final action of the season to clinch a share of the Little Three title. It was the Cardinals’ fourth straight win over the Ephs.

It took the Cardinals a quarter-century to beat their rivals again. But after a handful of agonizingly close calls and narrow losses, the Cardinals broke through with a thrilling 9-8 win on Smith Field on Saturday afternoon. The Ephs had racked up a 25-game winning streak against their Little Three rivals, including a 10-9 win in the 2004 NESCAC tournament.

Williams drew first blood to begin the day, scoring twice in the game’s first three minutes to jump out to an early 2-0 lead. But Wesleyan middie Maggie Lile ’11 evened the score with two straight goals in the first quarter. Williams quickly added two more scores and Chukwu found the back of the net for the first of her game-high four goals to make it 3-4 at halftime.

A minute-and-a-half into the second, Williams took a shot that appeared to hit off the post. After conferring the officials decided to award the Ephs a goal. Down 5-3, the Cardinals turned to the midfield tandem of Orkin and Chukwu, who both scored to tie the score with 20:38 to go.

Williams went ahead again a minute later, but Chukwu scored twice in a 1:16 span to put the Cardinals on top.

With 6:33 remaining, Sarah Orkin ’09 tied the game at 8-8 with an unassisted goal, her 17th. Three minutes later, with 3:38 on the clock, freshman sensation Allie Lynch ’11 scored her 15th goal off a feed from fellow freshman Jess Chukwu ’11 to give the Cardinals a 9-8 lead. Lynch had been held scoreless in the game, but her lone goal proved to be the game winner.

Williams did not go quietly, firing two shots just wide of the Wesleyan cage with under a minute left. The Ephs recovered again, but co-captain Beck Dorey-Stein ’08 knocked the ball loose and Cardinal goalkeeper Rachel Stemerman ’09, who finished with 13 saves, picked up the ground ball as the Cardinals ran out the clock.

Wesleyan, which entered the contest ranked 17th in Division III, scooped up 25 ground balls to Williams’ 15. The Ephs controlled 13 of the game’s 19 draws and outshot the Cardinals 28-22, but a strong Wesleyan defense and an outstanding performance by Stemerman helped keep the Ephs at bay.

Saturday’s game was not the Cardinals’ only action of the weekend, as they took on 11th-ranked Babson at home on Sunday. The Beavers jumped out to a 3-0 lead and rolled to a 15-6 victory. Co-captain Sophia Kim ’08 led the Cardinals with three goals in the losing effort.

The loss to a strong nonconference foe did not dim the luster of the weekend’s accomplishments. Three coaches, 26 games, and 556 goals later, Wesleyan has regained the upper hand in this never-ending battle of supremacy.