The men’s lacrosse team dispatched Colby on Saturday by a score of 9-7 thus claiming the third seed in the NESCAC tournament. The tournament then started on Sunday, and the Cardinals won their second home game of the weekend, holding off the sixth-seed Trinity by a final of 8-7. The team advances to the semi-final round of the playoffs, which will pit them against Tufts next Saturday. The championship game will be the following day, with all games to be hosted by top-seeded Middlebury.
Colby (8-6, 3-6 NESCAC) came to Middletown in a battle with Trinity and Conn. College for the final two playoff berths, and brought everything they had at the Cards. The men took a first quarter lead of 3-2 with goals by Chris Meade ’05, quad-captain Ian Applegate ’04, and Glenn Adams ’06. Colby came out hot in the second, scoring the first three goals of the period to take a 5-3 lead. Adams grabbed the momentum back for Wes, scoring with less than 30 seconds left in the half to cut the lead back to one.
“We played a miserable fist half against Colby, but coach Raba’s halftime speech and threat of running us after the game if we lost sparked our team to victory,” Applegate said.
The team came out with a strong third quarter, a feat seen often this season, especially in recent weeks. Goalie Matt Wheeler ’05 and the defense shut the Mules out, and the offense took the lead back with goals coming from Jordan Funt ’06 and Mike Walsh ’06.
The Cardinals continued to control the game in the fourth, with two more goals by Applegate making the score 8-5. Chris Knacke ’05 finished the scoring off for the Cards, and Colby’s last two goals came with less than one minute on the clock.
“Once again I had no choice but to give myself a game ball for my heroic performance on Saturday afternoon,” Applegate said. “I have to give a lot of credit to Pat Reid [’01]. If it wasn’t for his mysterious persona, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I’d like to give a shout out to Brad Wasik [’04]and company for the brilliant idea of buying and setting up a twelve-foot pool on the sidelines.”
Applegate’s three-goal performance allowed him to finish the regular season with a team-leading 32 goals. Adams led the team in points for the regular season, just ahead of Knacke, Applegate, and Meade. Wheeler has been a force in goal with consistent help from some upperclassmen regulars on defense, and an assortment of players keep stepping up for the Cards.
“Freshman defensemen Tom Bendon, Peter Harris, and Matt Burke, who for only the second time all year has seen time with the first defense against Trinity, have been awesome this year,” said quad-captain Chris Mele ’04.
The victory capped off a 12-3 regular season, with a third place finish in the NESCAC at 6-3. Amherst tied the Cardinals in the standings, but Wes got the edge in the tournament seeding by defeating the Lord Jeffs in the regular season. The loss left Colby as the team on the outside looking in, as the Mules lost the three-way tiebreaker for the sixth and seventh spots.
Trinity won the three-way tie with Colby and Conn. College, earning a chance to travel to Wesleyan to avenge an earlier loss to the Cards. That game took place less than two weeks ago in Hartford, in which Wes rode a 3-0 third quarter to a 10-6 victory. The elimination factor of the tournament always seems to make things more interesting.
The Bantams jumped out to an early two-goal lead before the Cards settled down. Funt first assisted Applegate to get the scoring started, and later scored one of his own to tie the game at two a piece. Applegate kept the momentum going into the second quarter. He gave the Cards their first lead with an unassisted goal, and then assisted on an extra-man goal by Knacke.
Coming into their typically effective third quarter the Cardinal lead stood at 4-3. Once again Wheeler and the defense shut down the opponent, and Knacke kept the offense rolling. After Knacke scored his second and third goals of the match, Funt got his second to push the lead to 7-3. Adams assisted on two of those goals, giving him three for the game.
Trinity came out firing in the fourth, scoring four straight goals to tie the game at seven by the nine-minute mark, with three goals coming from Chad Burdette ’06 giving him four on the day. Mike “Mayo” Hines ’07 stepped up with a big assist for the Cards, finding Meade who got the game winner as the Cards came out with a hard-fought 8-7 victory. Wheeler and the defense held off the Bantams for the rest of the match, securing the first-round victory.
“It’s nice to see Mike Hines stop being a horse’s ass and actually play well, it was his assist to Chris Meade that won the game for us,” Applegate said. “For this game, there will be a three-way tie for the game ball. Obviously myself, Matthew ”Stickside High“ Wheeler who played a hell of a game, and Phil Amidon [’05] for his ridiculous check to stop some Trinity dude from scoring on an open net.”
Survival is the name of the game in the tournament, and the Cards got the job done this weekend. Now the team has a chance to take on Tufts (13-2) again, with a spot in the title game on the line. Tufts advanced with a 9-7 victory over Conn. College on Sunday. Tufts defeated the Cardinals 10-7 last Wednesday at North Field. Host Middlebury takes on Amherst in the other semi-final game, as the top four seeds remain in the tournament.
“This is the best chance we’ve had at winning the NESCAC and making the NCAA’s. I couldn’t think of a better way to end our, the seniors’, lacrosse careers,” Mele said. “We have a great coaching staff and an awesome group of guys on our team. Whatever happens this weekend it has been a great run and I’m really sad to know it’s almost over.”
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