One can only hope Wesleyan men’s lacrosse will be extra hungry for a win as the NESCAC tournament commences. The Cardinals closed out the regular season on Wednesday with a loss to a surging Connecticut College team that has won its past four games, all of which have been against conference teams. Meanwhile, the defeat was the Cards’ second in a row, and fourth in their last five conference games. Connecticut improved to 9-5 overall and 6-4 in conference to secure NESCAC’s fourth seed, while Wesleyan dropped to 9-5 overall and 5-5 in conference for the sixth seed.

Things started out promising for Wesleyan, as the team scored the first two goals on the afternoon. Tri-captain midfielder John Froats ’12 got things going at 12:13 off of an assist by midfielder DJ Bernatavitz ’12. Two minutes later, Bernatavitz whipped in a goal of his own following a pass from Sam Stanton ’14. However, Connecticut did not stay dormant for long. The Camels rattled off five unanswered goals throughout the rest of the first half to put themselves up by a score of 5-2 at the break.

Wesleyan drew first blood of the second half as well, as Bernatavitz assisted Froats again at 7:33 for the lone goal of the third quarter. This put the Cardinals well within striking distance as the final period of the game commenced. Connecticut and Wesleyan traded goals to begin the fourth quarter. A Camel goal at 12:56 was abruptly rebutted at 12:16 as Froats returned the favor and assisted Bernatavitz. Unfortunately for the Cardinals, that would be their last goal of the match, as Connecticut put things on ice by scoring four more unanswered goals to take the game by a convincing 10-4 margin.

On Saturday, April 28, Wesleyan travels to Brunswick, Maine, to take on the Bowdoin Polar Bears in the NESCAC Quarterfinals. In addition to being the three-seed in the conference with a 6-3 record, Bowdoin is currently ranked 13th in NCAA Division III with an overall record of 11-3. The last time the Cardinals met the Polar Bears was a mere two weekends ago in Middletown, as the Bears defeated the Cards in a heated contest by a score 7-5. Tune into #WESCORES on twitter or a livecast via the athletic department website to see if Wesleyan can turn the tables this time around.