(Andrew Ribner/Photo Editor)
In what could prove to be an important weekend of results come playoff time, Wesleyan was handed its second and third NESCAC losses in quick succession. On Saturday, Wesleyan dropped a pivotal home game against Little Three rival Williams College by a 2-0 score, and unfortunately couldn’t right the ship the following day as the team traveled to Hamilton College and lost 3-1.
Coming into the Saturday game, Wesleyan was in the thick of the NESCAC standings, looking to improve upon its respectable 1-1 conference record. Williams was undefeated at the time, having won one game. The matchup would prove to be too much for the Cardinals to handle, as the undefeated Ephs kept rolling with a 2-0 victory.
The game was relatively lopsided, as Williams outshot Wes 20-10 during the contest. The first and the second halves were both controlled by Williams, who doubled Wesleyan’s shot count in each half, 8-4 in the first half and 12-6 in the second.
The first goal came late in the first half at around the 42nd minute, when Sachi Siegelman of Williams smashed a free kick into the net from 35 yards out. The second goal came as Williams roared out of the gate to start the second half. Less than two minutes had gone by before they repeated their earlier feat, albeit not from a set piece.
This marked the end of the scoring, and though both teams had many attempts on goal after this, the defense remained strong on both sides. Again, despite a tremendously relentless and talented Williams attack, goalkeeper Jessica Tollman ’15 still managed to come up big by making three saves.
Even after the disappointing result against Williams, the Cardinals still hoped to find themselves back on track with a victory over new conference member Hamilton in their inaugural year in the NESCAC.
Hamilton drew first blood 35 minutes into the first half. Given recent results, this could have discouraged the Cardinals and perhaps dampened their spirits, but they fought back and were able to even the score in the 50th minute on a goal from Mikaela Curtin ’13, assisted by second-leading scorer Kerry Doyle ’14 and Barrie Lindsay ’12. They may have thought that could be enough to hold Hamilton back, but unfortunately for the visitors, Hamilton would score twice more (in the 78th and 79th minutes) to win the game.
Hopefully the Cardinals can reverse the trend from this weekend and replace it with more success in the future. Next Saturday they travel to 2-1-1 Middlebury to take on the heralded Panthers.