Box
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MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- Meeting just eight days after the teams met
in Middletown during the regular season, Williams and Wesleyan did
battle again as first-round opponents in the NESCAC tournament for
the second time in the last four years.
The Cardinals used a fast start to build a 10-4 halftime lead
and then kept the Ephs in check throughout the second half to earn
the 12-5 victory.
The loss ends the 2009 campaign for Williams -- a season which
witnessed the Ephs recover from a 1-5 start with six consecutive
wins to earn Williams its first outright Little Three title since
1999, before bowing out in the NESCAC tournament with a final
record of 7-7 overall (5-4 NESCAC).
The win by Wesleyan, 12-3 overall (7-3 NESCAC), avenged a 9-5 Ephs
victory April 18 in Middletown. The fourth-seeded Cardinals will
play top-seeded Middlebury while Bowdoin, seeded second, takes on
third–seeded Tufts in the other semi-final.
For the second straight game David Hawley notched four scores to
lead the Eph offense, while goal keeper Michael Gerbush ended his
collegiate career with 13 saves.
The Cardinals' Russ Follansbee had two goals and two assists
in the opening 11:06 of the contest, leading Wesleyan to a 4-0
advantage after one quarter. Williams did cut the early deficit to
two on second-period tallies by 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 had a hat trick
during the second period and added the game's final goal for
his four-point afternoon.
Wesleyan recorded a 37 to 29 advantage in both shots and
groundball wins, while the Ephs face off specialists, Corey Jacobs,
was largely stalemated, going 19-38 on the day.
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
semi-final, winning 8-0.
