Following a pair of weekend wins, the men’s lacrosse team is in the NESCAC tournament semifinals for the sixth straight season. The team defeated Bates 14-10 on Saturday to secure the second seed and returned home to deal Trinity an 11-5 loss on Sunday. The Cardinals will now travel to Middlebury—the tournament host for the seventh time in its eight years of existence—to take on fourth-seeded Bowdoin, which defeated Connecticut College 11-10 in overtime on Sunday.

The 15th-ranked Cardinals never trailed in earning their 11th-straight win over Trinity on Sunday, jumping out to a 2-0 lead on a pair of goals by quint-captain Grayson Connors ’08. A Trinity goal cut the Cardinals’ lead in half with 2:59 to go in the first quarter, and the teams traded a pair of tallies for a 4-3 Wesleyan lead at halftime.

The Cardinals’ explosive second half offense was again on display Sunday, as Wesleyan opened the third quarter with seven straight goals to take a commanding 11-3 lead with 3:04 left in the game. Trinity added a pair of goals in the last 1:09 against the Cardinals’ backups for the 11-5 final score. Wesleyan improved to 10-4 on the season and 7-0 all-time in NESCAC quarterfinal games with the victory.

The win came on the heels of a 14-10 win on Saturday at Bates, a game Wesleyan led 14-5 before both teams cleared their benches. Wesleyan never trailed and held an 8-5 halftime lead before scoring the opening six goals of the second half. Connors tallied seven goals in the offensive outburst, giving him 11 on the weekend and 39 on the season. Keeper Mike Borrero ’09 made nine saves before being removed with 5:09 left in the third quarter; combined with his 57-minute, 14-save effort against Trinity, Borrero had a stellar .652 save percentage and 4.96 goals-against average on the weekend.

It was Wesleyan’s first win over Bates since a 7-6 home victory in 2003. According to defensive stalwart Spike Malangone ’09, the team went to Maine with the goal of winning, despite their recent struggles against the Bobcats.

“We just went up to Bates knowing we needed a win,” said Malangone. “I don’t think any other year really mattered…our focus was on playing our best game and getting momentum for [Sunday].”

Wesleyan will now take on 18th-ranked Bowdoin in the NESCAC semifinals for the second time in three years. In the teams’ last postseason meeting, Wesleyan rallied from a 9-3 second-quarter deficit to eke out a 16-15 overtime victory in the 2006 semifinals. The Cardinals have won the last five meetings overall, including a 7-3 home win in the 2007 NESCAC quarterfinals.

The winner of that game will face the winner of the other semifinal matchup between Williams and Middlebury. Overall, Wesleyan is 2-0 against Williams in tournament play but has lost to Middlebury in the championship each of the past four seasons.

In 2007, attacker Russ Follansbee ’09 was injured during Wesleyan’s semifinal game and the Cardinals fell to Middlebury in the championship the following day. With Follansbee back, Wesleyan is salivating at the thought of another match against Middlebury, this time at full strength. Yet the Cardinals will not look past their semifinal matchup against the dangerous Polar Bears.

“As great as it would be to see [Middlebury] Sunday, our focus is on beating Bowdoin on Saturday,” Malangone said. “Part of the motivation to beat Bowdoin is that we would get another crack at the NESCAC championship no matter who we [play]. If we win and it’s [Middlebury], surely the motivation’s there. But our focus is on Bowdoin.”