Women’s Lacrosse Finishes Regular Season with 16-7 Win

 

The Middlebury women’s lacrosse team kicked off its postseason this weekend with a quarterfinal matchup against the Bates Bobcats on Saturday, April 27. Coming off a 16-5 win against Williams in their last regular season game, the Panthers continued their tenacious play against Bates on Saturday, winning by a score of 16-7.

Middlebury came out firing early on, scoring six goals and allowing only one Bates goal in the first 15 minutes of play. In the first half, Middlebury was led by three of their talented seniors, Michaela Colbert ’13, Ellen Halle ’13 and Emma Kramer ’13. By the end of the first half, Kramer and Halle had each recorded three goals and an assist and Colbert had added a pair of goals.

After a Panther goal with eight seconds remaining in the first half from Katie Ritter ’15, Middlebury led Bates by a score of 9-3.

Although the Bobcats went goal-for-goal with the Panthers in the first 12 minutes of second-half play, the Panthers quickly went on their final run of the game, scoring six of the final eight goals.

Apart from goals from both Kramer and Halle at the beginning of the half, the majority of the Panthers’ second-half effort was shared by a number of other Panther players.

Alice Pfeifer ’13, Laurel Pascal ’16, Liza Herzog ’14, Chrissy Ritter ’14 and Katie Ritter ’15 each put up a goal in the game’s final 20 minutes.

Sophomore midfielder Lexi Demarco ’15 commented on the team’s performance against Bates.

“We were well prepared to handle Bates’ style of play,” said Demarco. “We played our game with constant energy and intensity, jumping on the Bobcats early. Our attack was confident and handled the ball well while our defense was relentless and prevented Bates from driving to the net.”

Alyssa Palomba ’14 played 55 minutes for the Panthers and stopped eight shots before being relieved by Katie Mandigo ’16, who recorded one save over the game’s final five minutes.

The Panthers held a 17-14 advantage in ground balls and a 33-19 edge in shots over the Bobcats, giving them the edge throughout the game in the offensive zone. Middlebury also controlled the draw battle, winning 14 of 25 draws on the day.

This coming weekend the Panthers will travel down to Hartford, Conn., where Trinity will host the NESCAC Semifinals and Finals on Saturday and Sunday, May 4 and 5. The Panthers are matched up against eighth-ranked Colby, while Trinity will play Hamilton in the other semifinal matchup.

Middlebury dominated Colby in the teams’ first matchup on April 20, winning 14-6.

Middlebury will have to continue their strong play against a talented Colby squad – which enters the game with a two-game winning streak – if the Panthers are going to keep their goal of a NESCAC title alive.

“Next week should be a great game against Colby,” said Demarco. “If we stick to our game plan and play as well as we did in our game against them in the regular season, we hopefully will move on to NESCAC finals for a shot at the title.”