Tigers' Season Comes to a Close

Cory Essig	Alex Nichols

A frustrating season came to end for the Tiger men's lacrosse team on Saturday as Wittenberg fell to Ohio Wesleyan 23-14, three days after losing to Kenyon 11-9. The losses pushed Wittenberg back to 5-10 overall on the 2002 season.

Both losses last week were nonconference games, as all NCAC teams that sponsor men's lacrosse play each other twice per season, but only once in games that count toward the conference standings. The Tigers finished fourth in the NCAC behind Denison, Ohio Wesleyan and Kenyon.

Against Kenyon, freshman Cory Essig (Dublin, Ohio/Coffman) had three goals, senior Alex Nichols (Phoenix, Md./Dulaney) distributed three assists and juniorDan Patterson (St. Louis, Mo./DeSmet Jesuit) finished with two goals and two assists to lead the offense. But the Lords outscored the Tigers 4-1 in the second quarter and sustained at least a two-goal margin the rest of the way.

Against nationally ranked OWU, Wittenberg jumped out to a 4-0 first quarter lead and hung tough through the end of the third quarter, when the Bishops moved out to a three-goal lead. But in the final 15 minutes, OWU outscored Wittenberg 8-2 to account for the final margin. In the loss, sophomore Hans Rydquist (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) rammed home four goals and seniors Nate Reed (Cincinnati, Ohio/Moeller) and Nichols each recorded three goals and three assists.

The men's lacrosse All-NCAC team will be announced later this week, and a press release will follow shortly thereafter.