MIDDLETOWN, Conn. -- The No. 14 nationally ranked Bates men's lacrosse team won its sixth game in a row, and reached the semifinal round of the NESCAC Championship tournament for the first time since 2005, with a 14-11 triumph at fourth-seeded Wesleyan University on Saturday.

Bates (10-4), the fifth seed in the tournament, took an early 2-0 lead and never trailed, avenging a 10-7 home loss to Wesleyan on March 7. Bates has reached the 10-victory plateau for the first time since 1987, and the first time in Peter Lasagna's 14 years as head coach.

The Bobcats will face top-seeded Amherst (15-1) on Saturday at noon. That game will be followed by the second semifinal between third-seeded Middlebury (12-4) and second-seeded Tufts (14-2) at 3pm. The championship game takes place at Amherst on Sunday at noon.

Junior Jack Allard (Montclair, N.J.) had four goals and two assists to lead the Bobcat attack, while sophomore Andrew Melvin (Medfield, Mass.) added three goals and an assist. Senior Jack Strain (Montclair, N.J.) and sophomore Kyle Weber (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) added two goals apiece. Allard is up to a career-best 39 goals, the most by a Bobcat since 2002, while Strain has a career-high 36. Allard (53), Strain (45), Melvin (37), sophomore Charlie Fay (Falmouth, Maine; 33) and Weber (31) have all passed the 30-point mark this season.

Bates forced Wesleyan to play catchup throughout the game, but most importantly, pulled away from the game's last tie, 6-6, in the third period by scoring four straight goals to take command, 10-6, in the final minute of the third stanza.  

Giving Bates the lead for good with his first goal of the season was sophomore defender Fred Ulbrick (Fairfield, Conn.), who charged up the right side through midfield and ran across the box past a host of Cardinal defenders before depositing the ball in the net from close range. That came with 9:41 left in the frame. Ulbrick also had a team-high two caused turnovers in the game.

At 4:19, Weber scored his second goal of the game and 19th of the year with a roller from long range off a pass from down low by Allard. That came on a man-up situation. Allard made it 9-6 with his low shot from the right at 1:11, after catching a pass from behind the net by Melvin. Strain then capped the 4-0 run with his 36th goal of the campaign and second of the game, converting a Weber pass at 0:47 with a high shot, making it 10-6. That sent Cardinal starting senior goalie Justin Schick, who had five saves, to the bench in favor of sophomore Ted Bergman, who surrendered the final four goals with two saves. 

Wesleyan got no closer than three goals the rest of the way, and the lead reached five goals, 13-8, with 4:52 left on Melvin's unassisted marker, completing his hat trick and giving him 19 tallies in 2015.  Wesleyan got the final two goals in the last minute of play to shrink the gap to three.

Bates jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter before Wesleyan came back to tie, 2-2.  Again, a pair of Bobcat tallies gave the visitors a 4-2 lead.  The gap was 6-4 at halftime before Wesleyan got goals from Harry Stanton at 13:54 and Stephen Dodd at 12:11 to draw even at 6-6 early in the third period before the Bobcats went on their decisive run.

Leading Wesleyan with three goals and an assist was senior Matt Prezioso, who paced the team in goals with 34 and points with 51 this year. Stanton added two goals and two assists for the Cardinals.

Wesleyan outshot Bates, 49-32, but the 15 saves by Faria made a big difference; Wesleyan converted on only 42 percent of its shots on goal, while Bates was very efficient, scoring on 14 of 21 shots on net (66.7 percent). Ground balls in the game were even at 32-32 while Bates won 16 of 28 faceoffs, led by sophomore Sam Francis (Newburyport, Mass.), who won 15 of 25.

Wesleyan leads the all-time series against Bates, 22-13, but the teams have split the last 16 meetings, 8-8. This was the first NESCAC postseason game between the Bobcats and Cardinals.