Field Hockey Sneaks by Williams, Colby, Improves to 6-1 Overall

Middlebury picked up two hard-fought wins over the weekend, beating Colby 2-0 on Saturday, Sept. 28 and Williams 2-1 on Sunday, Sept. 29, adding a third victory over Skidmore on Tuesday, Oct. 1. Coach Katherine DeLorenzo became the Middlebury Field Hockey’s most successful coach with 183 career victories to date.

The narrow margins of victory 2-0 and 2-1 raise less concern about the quality of Middlebury’s play, rather than announcing the increasing competitiveness of programs across the NESCAC league.  The defensive performances of both Colby and Williams, parrying away large shot advantages for Middlebury, showed that both teams prepared well to counter the Panthers offensive power.

Despite not registering blowout wins, Catherine Fowler ’15 believes that this is not a bad thing.

“It’s exciting now that every game is up in the air.  Not many teams are not going down by eight goals like they used to,” she said.

On Saturday, Fowler opened the scoring after converting a goal off of a penalty corner eight minutes into the game.  Fowler received the ball smoothly, slid it around a Colby defender to Elinore O’Brien ’14 on her right, who drew the goalie’s attention before reversing it right back to Fowler for an easy put-away.

The Panthers defended the less frequent Colby attacks by committing plenty of bodies back and having Emily Knapp ’15 yelling orders from her spot in goal.  Chrissy Ritter ’16 hustled all the way back from her forward position numerous times to catch Colby from behind and retake possession.

Central defender Meredith Rowe ’14 also played rock solid defense throughout the game with block tackle takeaways that caught the Mules by surprise.  The risky move requires holding the stick flat on the ground to create a road block for the rushing opponent.

“I wish I could put down a block tackle like she does,” Fowler said “It’s definitely comforting to know that she is back there.”

Before halftime, Bridget Instrum ’17 nearly added her first goal, spinning and lifting a rebound opportunity above a prone Colby keeper who flailed a stick upwards to deflect the goal away.

The second half proceeded tensely as Middlebury yearned for a bigger lead but Colby’s tightly packed defense resisted blow after blow.

With about four minutes left in the game, Lauren Berestecky ’17 found the ball near the top of the Colby arc and muscled to her right around a lunging defender before careening a bouncer off the the left wall of the goal to effectively seal the game.  Once again a testament to DeLorenzo, the play mirrored the exact drill that the forwards practiced over and over that week.

Scoring her first goal as a Panther, Berestecky was relieved to pass that milestone.

“It was good to get the first one out of the way and take that pressure off,” she said.

On Sunday, against Williams, no fan or player could shrug about Berestecky’s goal, as she struck yet again to break the tie in the 54th minute.  As designed in the set corner play, Fowler fired a shot toward the right post where Berestecky battled it away from a defender and shoved it into the goal.

Middlebury spent the majority of the afternoon experimenting in the Williams zone, earning 20 corners to Williams’ one. The Panthers dug deep into their corner playbook, calling a dozen different plays to finally overcome the stingy Williams defense.

Two minutes after breaking the ice, Fowler scored on yet another corner opportunity, sidestepping the first defender and punching a low shot past the Williams goalie.

The lone goal that Middlebury conceded over the weekend puttered over the goal line for Williams with just over one minute left to play. Middlebury wound the clock by letting Alyssa DiMaio ’15 carry the ball forward and avoid the swarm of Williams tacklers.

The Panthers stalked and snacked on the Skidmore Thoroughbreds on Tuesday night, piling on four late goals to win 4-0.  The glistening green turf, slightly wetter at night than during the day, charged up the team to play its most crisp and dynamic game of the streak.

“We really played our game tonight,” said Ellie O’Brien. “We moved the ball well from the middle out to the wing on the attack.”

The first half ended scoreless, but the chase finally ended midway through the second when Instrum beat a Skidmore defender one-on-one and chipped a pretty backhand shot high into the goal.  Shortly after, Berestecky and Rowe sunk two more goals.  The last lick of the feast went to captain Deidre Miller ’14, who skillfully deflected a shot from Hannah Deoul ‘14, increaing the Panthers lead 4-0-—the game’s final score line.

The Panthers travel down to Boston to face Tufts on Saturday, Oct. 5 before taking on MIT on Sunday, Oct. 6.