With the game tied at 10-10 after three quarters, Williams outscored Middlebury by a 4-1 tally in the fourth for a 14-11 men's lacrosse victory Wednesday at a rainy Farley-Lamb Field. Despite the setback, the Panthers (11-4, 7-3) have earned the third seed for the NESCAC Tournament and will host a quarterfinal game this Saturday against the sixth-seeded Ephs (9-5, 5-5).

In the opening period, the two teams traded the first four goals over the first 7:13 with Middlebury's goals coming from Joel Blockowicz and Tim Giarrusso. With the game tied at 2-2, the Panthers rattled off three-straight scores over nearly the next four minutes by Joey Zelkowitz, Sean Carroll and Kyle Soroka. Williams' Steven Kiesel recorded the hosts' third goal of the game with 1:47 left in the opening quarter.

In the second, Williams slowly chipped away at the two-goal deficit. Michael Fahey scored the first of the quarter off of a drive around the back of the net at 11:58. Carroll matched that score on a man-up opportunity at the 10:06 mark and put the Panthers ahead by a 6-4 score.

The Ephs responded with goals by Riley Hoffman at 9:14 and Michael Fahey at 5:52 to knot the game up at 6-6. Zelkowitz gave the visitors a one-goal edge with his second tally of the game, but Williams' Bryson Gilbert-Bono fired a bullet into the net to answer at 4:48, sending the game into the halftime break tied at 7-7.

After the intermission, Williams won the opening faceoff as Hoffman secured the ground ball and took it down the field for his second of the game. That score was answered just over a minute later on Blockowicz's second tally for the evening. Over the remainder of the third, the teams traded goals. A man-up goal for Williams' Tanner MacIvor along with a score by Andy Grabowski were sandwiched around tallies by Soroka and Jack Rautiola for the Panthers, sending the game into the fourth deadlocked at 10-10.  

In the fourth quarter, the Ephs posted the first two goals from Kiesel and Grabowski. Rautiola scored for Middlebury with 9:26 left to cut the lead to one at 12-11. That's as close as Middlebury would get as the Ephs posted the game's final pair of goals and took time off the clock.

Fahey and Kiesel lead the Ephs attack with three goals each, while John Maimone-Medwick finished with a team-high five ground balls. Williams' goalie Dan Whittam (9-5) had 14 saves in the win. 

Blockowicz, Soroka, Rautiola, Zelkowitz and Carroll each recorded two goals for Middlebury, while Henry Riehl tallied a game-best three assists. John Jackson won 20 of his 28 face-off opportunities and tallied a game-high 11 ground balls. Will Ernst (11-4) tallied seven stops for the Panthers in front of the goal.