The men’s lacrosse team’s regular season skidded to a halt with unexpected results against NESCAC bottom-feeders that wouldn’t strike fear into the hearts their playoff opponents. The Cards traveled to Bowdoin (3-12, 2-8 NESCAC) over the weekend and stumbled back to Middletown with a 9-8 win, before getting steamrolled 9-3 by Conn. College (4-11, 2-8 NESCAC).
Despite this disappointing finish, the Cardinals, now 9-6, 6-4 NESCAC, retained fourth position in the league and will host a first-round playoff game against Bates on Saturday.
The Redbirds were riding a two-game NESCAC win streak entering the Bowdoin game and knew that one more victory could be enough to secure them home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Captain and defenseman Kevin Campbell ’15 chalked some of the struggles in Brunswick up to travel, but wrote in an email to The Argus that ultimately the Cards were confident about their chances against a lesser league opponent.
“It is always hard any time we have to travel to Maine to play Bowdoin but we felt great coming off two NESCAC wins and were confident going into the game,” Campbell wrote. “We started off slow in the first quarter but then our defense shut them down for about 30 minutes and our offense gave us a lead going into the final quarter.”
Indeed, the Cards bossed the middle of the game after a slow start, which has been a characteristic feature of their season. The Polar Bears took a 3-2 lead before Wesleyan netted 6 of the next 7 to make it 8-4 early in the final period. Harry Stanton ’18 led this offensive burst with a hat trick, his fourth of the season.
Bowdoin didn’t capitulate, however, and managed to tie the score at eight after a four-goal run in a 4:23 span.
David Murphy ’15 then put the Redbirds back on top with just over four minutes remaining, and Campbell and the Wesleyan defense did the rest, clinching a vital but rather unconvincing victory. Still, Campbell took a positive out of the way the Cards managed to secure the result.
“[Murphy’s] goal was huge because it showed how resilient we can be after giving up a lead late in the game,” he wrote.
Moreover, this victory clinched the fourth seed for the Cards, meaning, perhaps, that there was less to play for in their game on Wednesday versus Conn. College. Although eliminated from playoff contention, the Camels made a large statement in handing Wesleyan by far their worst loss of the season.
“The Conn game was the only really bad game we played this entire year and our team looked flat going into it,” Campbell wrote. “There are no excuses as to why we didn’t play well. We just weren’t able to execute on either side of the field and Conn had a great game plan that they stuck to, and they came out with a victory to end their season.”
The Cardinals managed only three goals, partly the result of a hot Camel goaltender who managed 15 saves, and were otherwise tepid in most categories.
For Campbell, the only thing to do is forget about it and move on.
“We are just ready to get back to practice these next two days before the playoff game against Bates and start a run in the postseason,” Campbell wrote.
The squad will have two days of practice to prepare for Bates, whose spectacular finish to the season could not further oppose that of the Cardinals. Currently ranked 14th in the nation, the Bobcats have won their last five NESCAC matchups by at least four goals in each game.
The Cardinals won their game with Bates earlier this season, but will have to be firing on all cylinders to challenge the surging Bobcats. Luckily, one of the biggest strengths of this squad is confidence, and they are raring to go and desperately want win it all, especially the seniors.
“Despite the loss against Conn. we are very confident in our team’s ability to beat any team on any given day, and that is our mindset going into the playoffs,” Campbell wrote. “We are going to take it one game at a time, but we know we can make a run in the postseason and make the NCAAs this year, which would be the first and only time my class gets that opportunity. We want to continue the success that other Wesleyan athletics have had recently by winning a NESCAC championship and end our careers on a great note.”