The Illinois Wesleyan men’s lacrosse team’s historic win streak has come to an end.
After opening their 2026 season with a win over Colorado College on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026, the Titans lost a heartbreaking match against Southwestern University just two days later to end their historic home win streak.
The 27-game streak stretched over 1000 days, with the Titans’ last home loss coming at the hands of Rhodes College on Feb. 19, 2023. The streak included eight regular season wins against College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin opponents, three CCIW Championship title-clinching games, and two NCAA Div. III First Round postseason wins, both over Aurora University.
The Titans opened the 2026 season with a home win over Colorado College. The game came down to the final seconds, when Colorado College scored a goal with seconds left. However, the goal was disallowed due to the scorer being inside the crease (the circle around the goal,) clinching the nail-biting twenty-seventh win for the Titans.
But clearly, the lacrosse gods knew it was time for the Titans’ streak to end. Just two days later, the Pirates of Southwestern University sailed right into Tucci Stadium, ready to chew bubblegum and snap a win streak. And they were all out of bubblegum.
The Pirates took an early 3-1 lead in the first period in what looked to be the early making of a thorough stomping of Illinois Wesleyan. But the Titans marched back, eventually tying the game at 8 each in the waning seconds of the third period. With just two minutes, ten seconds left in regulation, the Pirates took the lead, 13-12, and never relinquished it. The Titans’ streak was officially snapped. It was the longest active home win streak in Division III lacrosse and finished tied for the 10th-longest all-time.
The Titans now sit at 2-2 on the season. The team dropped another home game against Aurora University on Feb. 21 but picked up a road win against DePauw on Feb. 25. All four Titan matches this season have now been determined by a margin of one point.
Illinois Wesleyan faces another test at Tucci Stadium against Benedictine University on Thursday, March 5. Action is set to begin at 7 p.m. Live play-by-play commentary by Hayden Warfield will be available on the game’s livestream, alongside live stats at iwusports.com.
