Coming off of a loss to Tufts in the final home game of the year, the Wesleyan women’s lacrosse team traveled to New London, Conn. to take on the Conn College Camels on Wednesday, April 23. Going into the game, each team was looking for its first NESCAC win of the year, as both teams had 0-9 records in the conference. The Camels came out on top in a close one, topping the Cardinals 10-9.

Conn opened up the scoring 35 seconds into the game, but the Cardinals answered back quickly, with Hannah Plappert ’16 scoring her ninth goal of the season just 16 seconds later. The Cards and Camels went back and forth for the rest of the first half; both teams displayed offensive prowess. After a Conn goal made it 2-1, Martha Harding ’16 scored off a free position shot to make it 2-2.

About two minutes later, Conn scored again off a free-position shot, which was followed by a goal from the Cardinals’ Leah Sherman ’15. After two more Conn goals made it 5-3, Daphne Kroessler ’15 scored her second goal of the season, which was followed up by an Abby Wheeler ’17 goal off an assist from Captain Abby D’Angelo ’15. Wheeler’s goal made it 5-5 with 3:25 remaining in the first half.

In the beginning of the second half, the Camels rattled off three straight goals, taking an 8-5 lead with 18:15 remaining in the game. The Cardinals answered back with three goals of their own in a span of two minutes and forty seconds. Harding scored her 16th goal of the season to make the score 8-6. That goal was followed by two Sherman goals at the 17:23 mark and the 15:22 mark to tie the game at eight. Sherman’s hat trick brought her season goal total up to 16, and she also picked up two ground balls in the game.

Over the next eight minutes, Conn was able to score two more goals to make it 10-8.  Wheeler scored her second goal of the game and her thirteenth goal of the year with 5:29 remaining to make it a one-goal game. Unfortunately, the Cards were not able to strike again and the Camels held on for the 10-9 victory.

In addition to her two goals, Harding picked up two ground balls in the game and caused a team-high three turnovers. The Cardinals picked up 17 grounders to the Camels’ 15 in the game. Meghan Kelly ’17 picked up two in the game to bring her team-high total up to 29 on the season. Wesleyan and Conn each controlled 11 draws in the game, with Meredith Smith ’17 and Emma Sveen ’17 both controlling three for the Redbirds.

The Cardinals finished the season at 0-10 in the NESCAC and 5-10 on the season. Wesleyan was led in points by Smith with 21, followed by Captain Maddy Coulter ’14, who missed the last two games of the season due to injury, with 20, followed by Sherman with 19 and Harding with 18.

Smith also led the team in goals with 19. After picking up two ground balls and causing one turnover in the game against Conn, Emily Gretsky ’16 finished the year with the second-most ground balls on the team with 26 and the most caused turnovers on the team with 16.

The Cardinals will return six of their top seven scorers, losing just three players to graduation. With the NESCAC being the most competitive conference in Division III, it is a promising statistic that seven of the Cardinal’s ten conference losses came by four goals or less, with three of them coming by one goal. With a young core and focused interim head coach Amanda Belichick ’07, the Cards have a very bright future.