NEW LONDON, Conn. – The No. 11 nationally ranked Wesleyan women's lacrosse team finished up their 2022 regular season with a 19-3 thumping of Conn. College on Wednesday night. The 19 goals matches a single-game record for Wesleyan in a NESCAC game while the 16-goal margin of victory represents the Cardinals' biggest NESCAC victory in program history.
 
Wesleyan (12-3, 7-3 NESCAC) heads into the NESCAC Tournament flying high, winners of three straight and four of their last five overall. The Cardinals earned the #4 seed and will play host to #5 Hamilton on Saturday at Noon from Smith Field. This marks the Cardinals' 12^th NESCAC Tournament appearance in team history.
 
The Cardinals continued their stellar season by scoring a season-high 19 goals, a total that equals a 19-11 win over Bowdoin back in 2019 for the most goals Wesleyan has ever scored in a NESCAC game. In all, 12 different Cardinals scored at least once while Olivia Lai '23, Kate Balicki '23 and Sam DeLeo '25 each tallied hat tricks to lead the way to the Wesleyan victory. Lai finishes the regular season sitting atop the NESCAC leaderboard with 53 goals in 15 games.
 
On a day where the Cardinals scored 19 goals, it took a little while to get going as Abbey Logan '23 opened the scoring just 1:32 into play but an almost seven minute scoreless stretch followed before Kendall Mittleman '23 fired in her first of two on the day off a feed from Laura Baine '24.
 
After Lai and Greenwald scored in the closing minutes of the first, Wesleyan poured it on in the second quarter, outscoring the Camels 8-0 to take a 12-0 lead into halftime. Lai completed her first half hat trick with back-to-back goals just 42 seconds apart. Balicki scored all three of her goals in the second quarter with Chessy Greenwald '23 assisted on three straight goals to highlight the Cardinals' dominant showing in the first half.
 
Armed with a 12-0 advantage and the running clock rule in-effect, Wesleyan saw several Cardinals get into the action in the second half. Annabel Cincotta '25 was first to score for Wesleyan in the second half before she assisted Kaitlyn McMullan '22 and later found DeLeo for a goal in the fourth, giving her a career-high three-point night (one goal, two assists).
 
DeLeo got on the board with her first career goal with 14:18 remaining in the fourth, her first of three goals on the night. After another DeLeo goal, Elsa Gordon '25 scored followed by Brooke Nelson '24 and DeLeo then completed her hat trick with 1:39 left to finish off a 19-3 win and send Wesleyan into the postseason.
 
Shots favored Wesleyan 35-6 in this one while Wesleyan forced Conn. into 25 turnovers for the game. Greenwald's four points (one goal, three assist) is a new career-high for the junior. Lai's three goals gives her 53 on the season which ranks first in the NESCAC through the end of the regular season. Balicki registered her sixth hat trick of 2022 tonight, upping her season goal total to 36, second-most on the team while she has scored at least once in all 15 games this season.
 
A matchup with Hamilton in the NESCAC Quarterfinals awaits as Wesleyan is hosting a NESCAC Tournament game for just the third time in program history and the first since 2019. This will be the first time the Cardinals have ever faced the Continentals in the NESCAC Tournament. Wesleyan defeated Hamilton 18-8 in the regular season on Wednesday, April 20.