In the final regular season matchup for the varsity lacrosse team, the Wolverines came up just short of upsetting the city’s top team, falling to chief rival Loyola (14-3 overall, 8-0 in Mission League play) by a score of 15-14 on Thursday evening at Loyola in a showdown of the league’s top two teams.

The Wolverines (ranked sixth in the MaxLaxLA coaches’ poll) struggled early on in the game, trailing 6-2 after one quarter, but clawed back into contention with a dominant second quarter that made the score 7-7 at the half.

From there, it was a back and forth battle, with neither team ever leading by more than two goals. Unfortunately for Harvard-Westlake, the Cubs (ranked first by MaxLaxLA) sealed the win on a goal by Harrison Mac ’15 with under three minutes remaining to break a 14-14 tie, as the Wolverines were unable to respond in an eventual one-goal loss.

Tommy Park ’18 led the team with a career-high six goals, helping the Wolverines fill the voids left by injured attackmen Paul Rodriguez ’18 and Jared Goldman ’18.

Harvard-Westlake concludes its regular season at 10-7 overall and 5-3 in Mission League play, still in second place in the league due to head-to-head goal differential vs. Crespi (also 5-3 in league). The Wolverines are assured of a home playoff game on May 5, but do not yet know their opponent, as the CIF Southern Section Northern Division seeding meeting will take place on May 3 at Culver City High School. If the current rankings hold, Harvard-Westlake will be the #6 seed in the 16-team bracket.