After a strong effort, the men’s lacrosse team fell to Tuft’s first-ranked NESCAC squad Wednesday afternoon, ending the Cardinals’ winning streak at five games. Tufts took an early lead and never allowed the Cardinals to gain enough steam, answering every Wesleyan run and ultimately defeating the Cards 10-7. The Jumbos entered the game tied for first in the conference at 7-1 (11-2 overall) and ranked eleventh nationally. Wes sat one game back at 5-2 in the NESCAC and held the fourteenth position in the national rankings.
“We came out slow in the first quarter and were never able to really get back in the game,” said quad-captain Ian Applegate ’04. “Whenever we got within one or two goals, they’d score another one to kill our momentum.”
Tufts came out firing, scoring the first two goals of the match en route to a 4-1 first quarter lead. Glenn Adams ’06 scored the only Cardinals goal of the quarter to cut the lead to 2-1 with two minutes left, but Tufts grabbed back the momentum with two goals, including one with only eleven seconds remaining.
Adams struck again to get the scoring started in the second, but Tufts answered to push the lead back to three. Mike Vitulano ’06 scored his first of two on an assist from Chris Knacke ’05, and Vitulano soon returned the favor, assisting Knacke to end the first half scoring at 6-4.
Wes cut the lead to one on Vitulano’s second goal, but the Jumbos answered immediately and the stymied the Cardinals for the rest of the game. Tufts struck again before Knacke scored his second goal on an assist from Jordan Funt ’05.
Going into the fourth the score stood at 8-6, but Tufts netted two goals to push the lead to four. Meade got an extra-man goal in the comeback attempt, but the Cards ran out of clock time and the final stood at 10-7 in favor of the Jumbos.
“I place this loss on the shoulders of Mike ”Mayo“ Hines. He needs to stop being such a horse’s ass. Unfortunately for all of my fans out there, I was unable to reward my self with a game ball number twelve,” Applegate said, “Only because we don’t give out game balls when we lose.”
Despite the defeat, the team may have a shot at avenging the loss next weekend. After a hard-fought battle with some tough calls by the officials, the Cards can feel confident about a possible rematch with the Jumbos.
“The reason we lost had little to do with the skill level of the opponent. Tufts was very good, but had we not played the sloppy careless game we did, I’m sure we would have won the game,” said quad-captain Chris Mele ’04. “It’s good because if we clean up our game, which we are certainly capable of, we can beat Tufts should we meet in the semi-finals.”
Wesleyan did outshoot Tufts 30-25, and Matt Wheeler ’05 managed ten saves in the net. Wheeler was named NESCAC player of the week last week for his performances against Trinity and Williams. Wheeler has 131 saves on the year, and his save percentage is over 60 percent while allowing an average of seven goals per game.
The team looks to get back on track when Colby comes to Middletown this Saturday for a twelve o’clock game.
The loss to Tufts moves the Cards into a three-way tie with Amherst and Bowdoin. A win over Colby guarantees a home playoff game in the first round, since Wes owns the tiebreaker against both teams by defeating them in head-to-head match-ups. The playoffs will begin Sunday, with the final two rounds next weekend hosted by Middlebury or Tufts, whichever team wins the league.
“We should be matched up with Conn. in the first round, and a solid effort should secure a win in these next two games, giving us a week to prepare to play Tufts again,” Mele said.
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