The Colby women’s lacrosse team emerged from its most crucial week of the season with two wins and the second seed in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) playoffs secured. Colby faced rival Bowdoin College, then ranked 12 in the nation, and sixth-ranked Middlebury College in the span of three days with NESCAC playoff positioning on the line.

In its final home game of the regular season, Colby was determined to extend their 14-game winning streak at home (dating back to 2010) alive. The Polar Bears did not make things easy as they held on every time the Mules tried to pull away. Kate Pistel ’13 scored a hat trick, Claire Donegan ’12 scored twice, Lindsey McKenna ’14 added two more and Alex Mintz ’14 contributed her own goal as Colby raced out to an 8-7 lead with only five minutes to play. Having led 6-5 at the half, Colby was finally able to pull away behind late goals from McKenna and Pistel. After Bowdoin scored twice to make it a one-goal lead, Colby was able to hold on for the precious 10-9 win. The win allowed Colby to finish 6-0 at home for the season, a good sign of things to come as Colby is set to host a NESCAC quarterfinal game.

That quarterfinal game would be determined by the result of the match against Middlebury. With Trinity College having secured the first seed, the winner of the game would wrap up the second seed. Middlebury seemed to be determined to run away with this one, but the Mules showed the same resilience that they have displayed all season long by fighting back.

Mintz scored with less than a minute left in the half to cut the deficit to 4-1 at intermission. In the second half, Donegan was determined to lead Colby to the second seed she had been chasing since her first year. She scored twice unassisted to open the second half before finding Hilary Barr ’13 to tie the game at 4-4 with 13 minutes left to play. McKenna scored less than a minute later to give the Mules their first lead before adding her second of the game to make it 6-4. Donegan continued her marvelous performance by assisting a Pistel goal to answer a Middlebury strike. Three minutes later, Donegan put the game out of reach by finding McKenna for her fourth assist of the afternoon. Middlebury scored once more, but was unable to overcome the deficit as Colby took the game 8-6.

Despite a game remaining against Bates College on Wednesday, April 25, Colby’s NESCAC quarterfinal matchup is already set. The Mules will host Hamilton College on Saturday, April 28, in a rematch of the March 20 game. The two teams had faced off in the spring break tournament in Florida where Colby came away with an 11-9 victory. This time, however, the Mules will be playing in front of their home crowd and with much more at stake.