The men’s lacrosse team lost its third game of the season on Saturday in front of a rowdy homecoming and WesFest crowd. The Williams Ephs beat the Cardinals 9-5 to secure the outright Little Three title and deny Wes a portion of the title for the first time in 10 years.
This was the Cards’ first home loss of the season, but early on, it didn’t look like Wesleyan’s home streak would end. The Cardinals struck early, taking a 1-0 lead in the first three minutes on a goal by quad-captain Jason Ben-Eliyahu ’09. The teams basically traded goals for the rest of the first half until Williams was up 4-3 at halftime.
In the third period, however, the Ephs took control, outscoring Wes 3-0. The Cardinals switched defenses and goalies, but it was too little, too late.
“Our zone is designed to allow outside shots and never give up any free goals from the crease,” said defenseman Nate Green ’09. “At the very end of the half, and in the beginning of the third quarter, they were taking outside shots, and the shots were falling. After we went down 7-3, we switched to our man-to-man defense, which went very well the rest of the game.”
“Saturday was a very tough loss for us,” Green continued. ”We rarely lose games at home, and it really hurts to drop one in front of our homecoming and WesFest fans. Our offense struggled to put the ball in the back of the net even though we outshot them almost 2-1. Unfortunately, our offense struggled maintaining possession and the Williams goalie made a whole bunch of saves.”
Williams has won two straight against Wesleyan since being shut out by the Cardinals 8-0 in the semifinals of the 2007 NESCAC tournament; the Ephs last won consecutive games against the Cardinals in 2000, also the year of Williams’ last victory in Middletown. The Ephs ran their winning streak against Wesleyan to 19 that year with a 13-11 victory in the ECAC tournament. Williams proceeded to lose its next five on Jackson Field by a combined score of 69-42.
Wesleyan must now regroup and prepare for their regular-season finale against Connecticut College on Friday as well as the upcoming NESCAC tourmanent, which begins on Sunday. The Camels currently sit in the basement of the NESCAC standings at 1-7, and a win will likely clinch a home first-round tournament game for the Cardinals.
“As you can tell, it was a very disappointing loss to all of us,” Green said. “The team met after the game, and we agreed it won’t happen again. We just need to put it all together for the NESCAC tourney. The team still can get the job done in the NESCACs as long as we play like we are capable of and not like we did Saturday.”