Women's soccer frozen out by Polar Bears

Author: James Kerrigan

After a strong 2004 season which ended with a second place finish, the 2005 women's soccer team could not advance past the conference quarterfinals against Bowdoin.

Middlebury built momentum coming into the playoffs with a strong performance against Plattsburg, followed by a win over Trinity. Even though Plattsburg netted the winner in overtime, the Panthers put together a quality performance. Caity Abshere '07 scored the opening goal early in the second half on an assist from Caitlin Parker '08. Plattsburg answered with a goal of their own just minutes later, but ultimately Middlebury fell 2-1 in overtime.

Piggybacking off the strong midweek performance, the Panthers outshot Trinity 22-5 on their way to a 2-1 overtime win. The Bantams broke the scoreless tie early in the second half, but the Panthers refused to give up. They fought back with a goal in the 77th minute from Erin Oliver '07, and the 1-1 score stood through the end of regulation. But just 51 seconds into the extra period, Caitlin Parker '08, who assisted the game-tying goal, broke through the Bantam defense and ran in uncontested. With only the keeper to beat, she slotted the ball into the lower corner and helped Middlebury earn their fourth NESCAC win of the season.

Hoping to build off the two strong games leading up to the tournament, Middlebury traveled to Bowdoin for the quarterfinals. Unfortunately, this theory only lasted 47 seconds when Bowdoin blasted a shot over first-year goalkeeper Natasha Groblewski to take a 1-0 lead, and the Polar Bears never looked back. According to Coach Kim, this early goal disrupted any chance of Middlebury establishing a flow: "We were not fully focused at the start of the match, and Bowdoin made us pay for it right away. Their goal inside the first minute made it difficult for us to establish a rhythm."

Earlier in the season Middlebury notched an important 3-2 home win over the Polar Bears. When it mattered, though, Middlebury could not compete with the Polar Bears to quite the same extent. Coach Kim commented, "They were very fired up after we beat them in the regular season, and their intensity level put us under tremendous pressure all over the field. Our girls deserve a lot of credit for playing through the entire match, refusing to wilt despite the fact that Bowdoin's finishing was right on." Right on it was, the Polar Bears converted four of their six first half shots to jump out to a large, early lead. Erin Pittenger '07 scored Middlebury's only goal, but it was not nearly enough as Middlebury's season ended with a 5-1 loss.

In retrospect, even the tough loss on Sunday does not take much away from an otherwise solid season for the Panthers, finishing with a 7-6-2 record. Coach Kim noted, "There are a lot of positives to be taken from this season, and unfortunately the quality of our play was not evident in our overall record. We had tremendous senior leadership."