Courtesy Wesleyan Sports Information

Box Score

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. - Just eight days after the teams met in Middletown during the regular season, Wesleyan and Williams did battle again as quarterfinal opponents in the 2009 NESCAC Men's Lacrosse Championship for the second time in the last four years. As they did in 2006 when the Cardinals took a 12-5 decision over Williams, Wesleyan again prevailed in 2009 by nearly an identical score, 11-5, to advance to the NESCAC semifinals at Middlebury next Saturday, May 2.

The Cardinals, seeded fourth, will play top-seeded Middlebury while Bowdoin, seeded second, takes on third–seeded Tufts in the other semifinal. Wesleyan will be making its seventh consecutive appearance in the conference semifinals.

The win today by Wesleyan (12-3) over Williams (7-7) avenged a 9-5 Ephs victory April 18 which gave Williams its first outright Little Three title since 1999. One of the differences for the Cardinals was the play of top-scorer senior Russ Follansbee and senior goalie Mike Borrero. In the first meeting, Follansbee was limited to one goal but today, Follansbee, who has 55 points on the season, had two goals and two assists in the opening 11:06 of the contest, leading Wesleyan to a 4-0 advantage after one quarter. In the net, Borrero, who yielded six goals without a save in 35 minutes vs. the Ephs before exiting April 18, made two good stops in the first period, had four saves at halftime and finished the game with 11 stops. Follansbee also added an assist late in the second period to close out the game with five points.

Williams did cut the early deficit to two on second-period tallies by sophomores Tommy Murray and David Hawley, but Wesleyan junior Jon Killeen responded with two goals just 39 seconds apart to push the gap back to four at 6-2 with 11:07 remaining in the second quarter. In total, the teams combined for 10 goals in the second stanza as Wesleyan owned a 10-4 lead at intermission. Hawley, who leads the Ephs this season with 34 points and 32 goals, had a hat trick during the second period and added the game’s final goal for a four-point afternoon. Junior Lonny Blumenthal had four goals in the game for Wesleyan, giving him 18 on the season.

In the Williams goal, senior Michael Gerbush had 13 saves for the second time against Wesleyan this season, however, the Cardinals more than doubled their goal output this time with sharper shooting and several pin-point passes to open cutters. Five different players assisted on each of Williams’ five goals.

This was the third time Wesleyan and Williams have met in NESCAC tournament play. The most recent before today was in 2007 at Tufts when the Cardinals posted a rare shutout in a tournament semifinal, winning 8-0. When Wesleyan and Middlebury meet May 2, it will be the fifth time in the last six years the Cardinals and Panthers have crossed paths in the NESCAC playoffs. Each previous time was in the championship game, all won by Middlebury. Wesleyan downed Middlebury, 8-7, during their 2009 regular-season matchup March 14, the only loss this year suffered by the Panthers.