LEWISTON, Maine — No. 15 Bates College saw its 2026 season come to an end Saturday with a 14-12 loss to undefeated Hope College in the third round of the NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship Tournament at Garcelon Field.
The Flying Dutchmen (20-0) advanced to next Saturday's national quarterfinals, where they will face either No. 2 Bowdoin or No. 11 Stevens.
Bates (12-6) controlled possession for much of the contest, finishing with advantages in shots (57-31), ground balls (57-41), and faceoffs (25-5), but committed 20 turnovers.
The garnet and white opened the game with three unanswered goals after Hope scored first, taking a 3-1 lead on a Charlie Hepp goal with 1:56 left in the opening quarter. Connor Hartman tied the game at 1-1 before Henry McCann and Hepp added first-quarter tallies.
The Bobcats extended the lead to 4-1 early in the second quarter on Gray Doyle's first goal of the afternoon. Hope answered with consecutive goals from Gibson Heethuis to cut the deficit to one before Jack Goldbach restored a two-goal advantage at 5-3.
After Preston Hoexum scored for Hope, Bates responded with back-to-back goals in a 19-second span from Doyle and sophomore Benjamin Kondner, whose tally marked the first goal of his collegiate career, giving the Bobcats their largest lead of the game at 7-4. Hope added a late goal from Jack Zuiderveen to send Bates into halftime leading 7-5.
Hope opened the third quarter with two straight goals to tie the game at 7-7 before Hepp and Doyle each scored to help Bates regain the lead. McCann's third-quarter goal gave the Bobcats a 10-9 advantage entering the fourth.
McCann extended the Bates lead to 11-9 just 51 seconds into the fourth quarter, but Hope closed the game on a 5-1 run. The Flying Dutchmen tied the game at 11-11 on Zuiderveen's goal with 6:46 remaining before Jackson Early gave Hope its first lead since the opening quarter with 4:21 left.
Hope stretched the margin to 13-11 on Hoexum's third goal of the game with 1:56 to play, but Schmidt answered nine seconds later after another face-off win to pull Bates within one. Weston Godbold added an empty-net goal with 22 seconds remaining to close the scoring.
Doyle and McCann each scored three goals for Bates, while Hepp added two goals and one assist. Hartman, Goldbach, Kondner, and Schmidt also scored for the Bobcats.
Hope was led by Gibson Heethuis, who totaled seven points on two goals and five assists, while Hoexum added three goals.
Hope goalkeeper Jack Balmforth made 11 saves, including seven in the fourth quarter, while Bates senior Andrew Toland recorded seven saves.
Senior midfielder Miles Schmidt won 20-of-23 face-offs and collected a game-high 16 ground balls for the Bobcats.
