The 2010 season has been nothing less than an exhausting roller coaster ride for Wesleyan Men’s Soccer. Yet after this past weekend, none of it matters anymore. The Cardinals are once again on top of the world.

Following last year’s historic campaign, including a 15-game unbeaten streak and an appearance in the Division III Sweet 16, Wesleyan entered this season with justifiably high expectations, ranked 14th in Division III in NCAA’s preseason poll and second in New England. And while the University lost seven players and six starters last spring, the emergence of a strong group of talented young players in 2009 gave the team reason to hope for a similarly impressive 2010.

However, the season did not unfold as planned. The starting lineup shuffled quite a bit as players vied to fill the shoes left by the 2009 squad’s established core, and the University had difficulty establishing momentum. On top of that, the NESCAC on the whole had grown deeper, and the Cardinals faced stauncher competition than last year. Going into the final game of the regular season, the Cards were seeded 10^th out of the 10 NESCAC teams with a disappointing 2-6 in-conference record.

While any preseason analyst would have pegged Wesleyan as a shoe-in to the league tournament, this outcome now looked seriously doubtful as the team needed to be seeded eighth or higher in order to gain a playoff berth. Achieving this required a win over Connecticut College (8) on Friday, Oct. 29 in addition to either ties or losses for Bates (7) or Trinity (9). The games commenced that afternoon, with Wesleyan taking on Connecticut College in a match in which the postseason hung in the balance for both sides. The Cardinals got off to an encouraging start, as a 12th-minute corner kick by Steve Paresi ’12 found Eric Mandell ’11, who one-timed it past the Camel goalie for the first goal of his career and a 1-0 Wesleyan lead. However, Conn would respond in the 28th minute with a goal off a penalty kick by league-leading scorer Trevor Prophet ’11, leaving the teams locked in a 1-1 battle that only promised to intensify.

Half an hour into a back-and-forth second half that saw many near misses for both sides, Ian Waldron ’13 corralled a ball deep into the left corner of Conn’s end and sent a cross into the box. The Camel goalie knocked away the ball, but Walter Rodriguez ’13 was there for the rebound and launched a rocket into the top left corner of the net. However, as victory loomed large for the Cards, Camel Billy Hawkey ’14 came up with a rebound of his own off a stop by Wesleyan goalie Adam Purdy ’13 and tapped it in at the 85th minute to push the game into overtime.

The pattern felt all too familiar for the Cardinals, who had seen numerous leads evaporate and promising efforts turn to heartbreaking losses. However, Friday was a different story. Following a Wesleyan corner kick in the 106th minute, Paresi controlled the ball from 30 yards out and fired home a shot to the upper left side of the net, sending the team and the home crowd into a frenzy. Minutes prior, NESCAC.com had posted the final scores of the Bates and Trinity games, both of which had ended in losses for the respective teams. Wesleyan had made it to the playoffs as the seventh seed.

Following Friday’s victory, the Cardinals had to collect themselves quickly to sustain the excitement past the weekend. On Sunday, Oct. 31, the team journeyed up to Williamstown, Mass. to take on second seed Williams College in the quarterfinals. The Ephmen promised to be formidable opponents, ranked 10th nationally after having gone 10-1-2 on the fall.

In addition to a spot in the semi-finals, pride was on the line for the Cardinals. The last time the Little Three rivals met was in the season opener on Sept. 11, a game in which the Ephs defeated the Cards on Jackson Field in heartbreaking fashion, netting a goal in the last seconds of overtime. It could be said that Wesleyan never recovered their mojo from there on out, as much of their regular season went on to be characterized by heartbreaking losses. Upending Williams in the playoffs would not merely vindicate the home-opener loss, it might also help them recapture that mojo and give them the mental spark they need to go all the way.

Wesleyan played with determination and composure early on, controlling the ball well at midfield and garnering several convincing offensive opportunities. However, in the 43rd minute of the match, Williams midfielder Gordon Atkins ’11 snuck a beautiful corner kick by several defenders within feet of the net, where it deflected off another Wesleyan player for an own goal. All of a sudden, the Cardinals found themselves trailing 1-0 at the half.

The lead gave Williams a confidence boost as the second half commenced. The Ephs put together several successive advances into Cardinal territory that were turned away by a tenacious effort from the Wesleyan backfield, featuring some big plays by goaltender Adam Purdy ’13, Jacob Mergendoller ’11, and Pat Moriarty ’14. Wesleyan in turn capitalized off turnovers and countered well, pressing Williams with increasing conviction as the clock ticked down. In the 83rd minute, the Cardinals were awarded a free kick from 40 yards out, which Paresi launched toward the Ephmen net. The ball was knocked away by the goalie, but Zach Dixon ’12 was there for the rebound, which he chipped over the defenders and past the goalie, tying things at 1-1 and sending the game into overtime.

In overtime, Wesleyan wasted little time before ending things for Williams. Five minutes in, Evan Hazelett ’13 sprinted after a long ball up the right side off a Cardinal counterattack and ran it in toward the goal, before feeding Rodriguez, who deposited it in the net to send the Cards to the Final Four and achieve a highly sought after degree of poetic justice.

“All year, we have talked about playing our best soccer at the end of the season when it counts most, and right now that’s what we are doing,” said Wesleyan head coach Geoff Wheeler after the game. “It’s been a true team effort with contributions coming from everyone. The seniors have done a fantastic job setting the tone at practice and keeping everyone competitive; it naturally carries over to game day where that spirit is a real difference maker.”

The Cardinals will spend this week preparing for their semifinal match versus top-seeded Bowdoin College, ranked fifth nationally with a regular season record of 10-1-2. The match will be played at Bowdoin on Saturday, Nov. 6 at 11:00 a.m., followed by the other semi-final match featuring Middlebury (4) versus Amherst (3). The winners of the respective matches will play in the tournament championship match at Bowdoin on Sunday.