Members of the Wellesley boys' lacrosse team would certainly not have any problems producing a paper on what they did over April Vacation after participating in the First annual Coaches' Challenge Cup with Dover Sherborn, Concord-Carlisle, Lincoln-Sudbury, North Andover, Hingham, Winchester and Andover last week.

The Raiders hosted the first day of the tournament at Sprague Field, bouncing back from a 6-3 road loss to archrival Needham to beat last year's D3 state finalist Dover Sherborn 6-5 in overtime on a goal by Sam Lawrence.

"Right now, to be a premier team in our league, you have to beat a team like Needham,' said Wellesley coach Rocky Batty. "Until we beat them, we're a has-been. That rivalry is a great rivalry, we get up to play them and they get up to play us."

The Raiders didn't do it exactly like they planned against Dover Sherborn, but they did get the job done.

"You think we planned anything? We had two things we were going to do and of course they came out and changed everything they did," said Batty. "Sam stepped up and got big. We hit a few pipes today and we took some just off the cage, not quite finishing. Sam shot to win the game. He just flat out shot that to win the game."

Charlie Jennings led the Raider offense with four goals while Oliver Saffrey added one score.

"It was a great game. The two teams played hard. We got early momentum and they did the same thing right back. It' was just a dogfight. It was a great game," said Batty. "One of the coaches, I forget who, said last week their game was a season-saver and that might have been the same for us."

Wellesley went up against D1 favorite Lincoln-Sudbury in the second round and held a 5-4 lead at halftime and led by as much as 7-5 in the third before Lincoln-Sudbury responded with a 9-3 run to take a 14-10 win and remain undefeated.

The Raiders met Concord-Carlisle in a consolation game on Saturday, leading most of the way before surrendering a game-tying goal with three minutes to play and then falling 7-6 in overtime.

"Our guys are working hard," said Batty. "We are working to become a tougher, smarter team and that doesn't happen overnight."

The Raiders (2-3) hope to improve on last year's regular season record, but as always, the team's performance in the post season will be the measuring stick of success.

"We were .500 and disappointed with it but when we had to come up big at the end, we did and played hard in the tournament," said Batty. "What we hope is we put it together and we get to the tournament and we're getting close. We want to get better. There's guys on the field that someone's going, 'God, get him off,' and we're saying, 'No," cause he's got to get better and he's got to play the next eight games so maybe by the last five he's ready roll so that's how we look at things."