Given that it had won the last five games, Wesleyan men’s lacrosse had cause for optimism last Saturday as the team journeyed up to Waterville, Maine to battle the Colby Mules. However, Colby jumped out to a commanding lead in the first quarter and never looked back en route to an 11-5 victory over the hot-handed Cardinals. Wesleyan dropped to 4-2 in NESCAC, while Colby improved to 2-3.

Colby converted less than a minute into the first quarter, as Mule midfielder Ian Deveau scored off of an assist from attacker Greg McKillop. Wesleyan evened things up at 8:40 when tri-captain John Froats ’12 scored unassisted, but Colby responded with four unanswered goals. Midfielder Jonathan McIvor and McKillop took turns scoring until they each had a pair of goals to put the Mules up 5-1 at the end of the period.

Wesleyan failed to gain ground on Colby, as the Cardinals played the Mules evenly in the second and third quarters before falling behind by two more in in the fourth. Wesleyan outshot Colby by a margin of 33-26, but Mule goalie Peter Reiley made 12 saves to keep the Cardinal offense at bay. On the bright side of things, Wesleyan received a pair of goals from tri-captain attacker Max Landow ’12 his first at 13:00 in the second quarter on an assist from Teddy Citrin ’12 and his second unassisted at 7:18 in the third. Landow’s goals were the first scored by either team in both middle periods. Wesleyan defender Brett Cabriele ’13 followed Landow’s second goal with his own unassisted effort seven seconds later for the first goal of his college career. Froats scored again at 5:10 in the fourth quarter off of an assist from midfielder DJ Bernatavitz ’12 to bring Wesleyan’s total to five on the afternoon.

Next up for the Cardinals is a Wednesday-afternoon home game versus Eastern Connecticut State University, the last non-NESCAC competitor they will face during the regular season.