In a battle of first-place teams on Saturday, the 13th-ranked men’s lacrosse team dropped a 11-8 decision to Middlebury to fall to 6-2 in NESCAC play with one game remaining. A win would have allowed Wesleyan to clinch the top overall seed and host the NESCAC tournament for the first time ever, yet the Cardinals are still in the running for the top spot. Wesleyan must now turn its attention to the season finale at Bates, a team that has given the Cardinals more than their fair share of trouble in recent years.

In the teams’ previous meeting, a second-round NCAA tournament game in Middletown in May 2007, Wesleyan scored the first four goals and jumped out to a 10-2 lead en route to a 13-9 win. The Cardinals again got on the board first this year as quint-captain Grayson Connors ’08 scored 1:27 into the game, but the Panthers netted a pair of goals ten seconds apart to take a 2-1 lead. An unassisted tally by Dan Latzman ’09 tied the game with 10:27 to go in the first quarter, but Middlebury scored four of the last five goals of the first half for a 6-3 halftime lead. It was the sixth time in seven home games that the Cardinals faced a three-goal deficit.

“Being down at halftime wasn’t anything new to us,” said attacker Jason Ben-Eliyahu ’09. “Things just didn’t go our way. [If a] couple [of] things go our way, it’s a new game.”

The teams traded a pair of goals to open the third quarter, giving Middlebury an 8-5 lead 3:53 into the quarter. The Panthers then added two more scores to go up 10-5 with 6:38 left in the third. A three-goal run by Wesleyan brought the Cardinals to within 10-8, but they would get no closer as Middlebury added the game’s final tally with 6:24 left for the 11-8 win. The victory was just Middlebury’s second conference win of the season by more than two goals. The Panthers defeated Colby at home, 12-7, in late March.

“It was a rough loss, but I think we’re all ready to put it in the past and get ready for Bates,” Ben-Eliyahu said. “Bates won’t be easy, but we’ll be ready to take care of business on Saturday. It’s a must-win game.”

The loss marked Wesleyan’s first regular-season defeat against Middlebury since 2005, when the Cardinals fell to the Panthers, 15-7, in a home game that was played at Western Connecticut State University. Wesleyan won at Middlebury 10-7 in 2006—handing the Panthers their first home loss against a NESCAC team in 11 years—and earned a 5-4 overtime victory at Middlebury in 2007. Wesleyan has not won a regular-season home game against the Panthers since 1975. The teams did not meet from 1984 through 2001.

The seventh-ranked Panthers moved to 7-1 in NESCAC play and 11-1 overall with the win. Wesleyan is now 8-4 overall and one-half game ahead of Tufts (5-2 NESCAC) in the conference standings. However, Middlebury must beat Tufts, the 2007 regular-season champion, on Saturday to bring the tournament back to Vermont after a one-year absence. The Panthers have hosted the NESCAC tournament every year except 2007 and have won it each year since it began in 2001. The Jumbos also play Amherst, which is currently 2-5 in conference play, on Wednesday. Should Tufts win both, a series of tiebreakers—most of which favor the Cardinals—would come into play to determine the top seed. Middlebury has won 30 of its past 31 meetings against Tufts, with the lone loss since 1967 coming in the 2007 season finale. However, Tufts appears primed to spring the upset, as the Jumbos are currently riding a four-game NESCAC winning streak that includes a 19-4 thrashing of Bowdoin, considered by many to be among the top teams in the conference.

However, Wesleyan has no easy task ahead of it. Bates has played the Cardinals exceptionally tough the past few seasons. The Bobcats won three straight against Wesleyan from 2004 through 2006 by an average of five goals per game. Wesleyan earned a 7-6 home overtime victory in the 2007 season finale. A loss would have forced the teams to play again in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. Wesleyan last won in Lewiston in 2000 by a 13-10 score.

Regardless of whether the Cardinals host the tournament, it is extremely likely that they will face Middlebury again. The teams have squared off in the tournament finals each of the past three seasons. Ben-Eliyahu noted that the Cardinals are relishing the opportunity for a rematch against their rivals.

“Middlebury is a good team, and I hope to see them again in the playoffs,” Ben-Eliyahu said.