THE BASICS:

Score: Wesleyan 9, Bates 8
Records: Wesleyan (1-0 1-0 NESCAC), No. 13 Bates (1-1, 0-1 NESCAC)
Location: Middletown, Conn. (Smith Field)
Date: Sunday, March 5th
Time: 11 a.m.
The Lead: The Wesleyan University women's lacrosse team pulled off a thrilling upset victory in overtime against No. 13 Bates thanks to an Abigail Horst '19 goal, which gave the Cardinals the 9-8 victory in their season opener on Sunday afternoon. 

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• Wesleyan went on two runs in the first half in which they scored three unanswered goals.
• Bates would score five goals in the second half to eventually tie the game, including four unanswered goals. 

FIRST HALF HIGHLIGHTS:

• Rachel Aronow '17 put the Cardinals on the board first just under a minute into the game with a free position goal at 19:01.
• The Bobcats responded with a free position goal of their own by Drew Barry to tie the game at 26:45.
• Wesleyan would then go on a three goal run which featured goals from Abby Manning '20, Horst and Caitlin Wood '19 to bring its advantage to 4-1.
• Bates would break the Cardinals' momentum with two goals to bring them to within one score. Syndey Cowles made the score 4-2 at 9:47 while the goal by Camille Belletete at 7:16 made the score 4-3 in favor of the home team.
• Wesleyan would respond with three goals in the final five minutes of the half.
• Meredith Smith '17 set up Emma Richards '20 for her first goal at 4:51 to make the score 5-3.
• The Cardinals would score two more goals in the final seconds of the half. The first goal came with 16 seconds remaining as senior captain Liana Mathias sent a pass to Manning who buried the ball into the back of the net for the 6-3 advantage.
• With time winding down, Mathias fired a shot off a pass from Horst that got past Bobcats' netminder Eliza Statile with just under a second remaining.
• Wesleyan would head into the break up 7-3.

SECOND HALF HIGHLIGHTS:

• Belletete would make the score 7-4 with her goal at 27:08 in the second half.
• Aronow would net her second of the game to put Wesleyan up four goals at 24:18.
• The Bobcats would go onto score four unanswered goals to tie the game at eight.
• Katie Allard scored two goals, and Teal Otley would also net two goals for the visitors, including the game-tying goal with 17 seconds remaining.

OVERTIME HIGHLIGHTS:

• With a minute remaining, Horst would gather the ball and rifle a shot past Statile to pull off the upset victory for the Cardinals. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Grace McCann '17 notched her first win on the season as she made 13 saves.
• Horst led Wesleyan with three points (2g, 1a), while Aronow, Mathias and Manning all notched two points a piece.
• The Cardinals held a 13-6 advantage in draw controls.
• Belletete led all scorers with four points (2g, 2a) for Bates.

HEAD COACH KIM WILLIAMS:

• "I was happy with the way we started the game but we knew Bates was a good team and although it wasn't pretty, I'm even prouder of how resilient we were today to be able to pull out that win."

UP NEXT:

• Wesleyan will return to the field on Wednesday, March 8th as it will face off against Fredonia at 5 p.m. at Smith Field.
• The Bobcats will also return to action on Wednesday as they take on Babson at 5 p.m. 

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