The sun shone kindly on the men’s lacrosse team (8-5, 5-3 NESCAC) on Saturday, the first warm day of spring. The squad downed Williams in an important victory that puts Wesleyan on the cusp of clinching a home game in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. Ranked 20th nationally, the Cardinals have two conference games remaining before the playoffs commence.
It was senior day at Citrin Field, and it felt like a rivalry match; the stands were packed and the fans enthralled. Characteristically, the game was tight and cagey.
The Cardinals took a degree of control in the second half, but Williams hung around and made the final stretch of the game uncomfortable. The Ephs were down two but scored to make it 9-8 with 6:42 still left to play, and they had multiple chances in the last minutes to draw level. Ultimately, though, an at times tepid Williams attack combined with good defensive work from the Cards kept the 9-8 scoreline intact until the final horn sounded.
“Overall I thought the game went well,” wrote captain Matt Prezioso ’15 in an email to The Argus. “We came out a little slow to start and put ourselves in a hole, but we bounced back in the second and third quarter.”
Williams actually jumped out in front of Wesleyan early in the game, scoring the first three goals of the contest, before Taylor Ghesquiere ’18 got the Cards on the board late in the first off an assist from Harry Stanton ’18.
The subsequent period turned out to be the most action-packed of the game, with each side scoring several goals. For the Cards, the second period saw Jackson Arnold ’16 notch his eighth of the season, Prezioso net his 29th, Niall Devaney ’16 snag number 15, and Captain Nate Ryan ’15 score the first of what would eventually be four goals on the day.
The Ephs scored three of their own to bring the score at the midway point to 6-5 in their favor.
Whatever was said in the halftime team talk must have gotten Ryan fired up, because he netted twice early in the third to give Wesleyan its first lead of the contest. Impressively, combined with his goal late in the second quarter, these two scores garnered Ryan a hat trick in a span of just 5:15.
Ryan was one of two Cardinals who Prezioso felt were key to the victory.
“Nate stepped up in a huge way during that game to get us going, and Kevin Campbell [’15] anchoring a young defense was also great,” Prezioso wrote.
David Murphy ’15 tacked another one on in the third to give the Cards an 8-6 lead, but Williams answered to make it 8-7 entering the fourth period.
Again, Ryan came out strong in the fourth. He put the Redbirds up 9-7 with a high shot from the middle, extending his game tally to four and his season total to 15. Williams did notch one back, but the Cardinals held on to their lead, securing a vital victory.
For Prezioso, the atmosphere made the win even more special, as did its playoff implications.
“Obviously any time you get a win against Williams it’s great, and especially doing that on Senior Day with a bunch of alumni back was really awesome,” he wrote. “Getting that win against them helps in a big way for getting a home game in the first round of the NESCAC tournament. We are in control of our own destiny going into the last two games.”
With the win, the Cardinals chipped away at the all-time series, which now stands 39-20 in favor of the Ephs. Recently, though, the Cardinals have turned it around, taking 13 of the last 18 meetings.
Prezioso thinks that the way the season has been going so far bodes well for a playoff push.
“As for the season, I feel like we have been playing very well,” Prezioso wrote. “We have a lot of young guys getting time and stepping up which is huge. We’ve had some tough losses, four of which were games lost by a combined five goals, which hurts, but also shows us that we can hang with pretty much any team in the country and are ready to make some noise come the NESCAC tournament.”
The Cards will travel to Bowdoin (3-9, 2-5 NESCAC) this Saturday, April 18, hoping to continue dominating in the stretch.