Women’s Lacrosse Suffers Shocking Pair of Losses

After a string of key NESCAC wins last week, the Middlebury women’s lacrosse team fell to two top-ranked opponents this week: SUNY Cortland on Thursday, April 10 and Trinity on Saturday, April 12.

On Thursday the Panthers – going into the game ranked fifth in the nation – hosted second-ranked Cortland on Kohn Field. The game was a back and forth battle from the opening whistle. Cortland fired first with Red Dragon Erica Geremia scoring an unassisted goal two minutes into the game. Middlebury quickly responded with an unassisted goal from sophomore standout Laurel Pascal ’16. After another unassisted Red Dragon goal following Pascal’s, Middlebury went on a three-goal scoring streak. Pascal and Liza Herzog ’14 both finished goals off of passes from Katie Ritter ’15, and Chrissy Ritter ’16 scored off of a free position shot.

Cortland did not relent and answered with two goals to tie the game 4-4 with 13 minutes left in the half. After a scoreless 12 minutes Chrissy Ritter scored an unassisted goal to put the Panthers up 5-4 going into the half.

The second half began a game of runs for both teams with Middlebury maintaining the lead until Cortland’s Kristen Ohberg scored off of a pass from Emma Geremia to tie the game at 9-9 with 8:30 left to play.

Middlebury quickly answered Ohberg’s goal with Bridget Instrum ’16 scoring an unassisted goal a minute later. Her effort would not prove to be enough, however, as Cortland finished the game strong with a trio of goals to put the Red Dragons past the Panthers by a score of 12-10.

Katie Ritter led the Panther’s effort with four points off of two goals and two assists. Panther goalkeeper Alyssa Palomba ’14 finished the game with four saves over the course of the game.

The Panther defense suffered against Cortland because captain and stalwart defender Hannah Deoul ’14 was out with a concussion. Her role was filled by first-years Allie Hooley ’17 and Jessie Yorke ’17.

Despite the tough loss, the Panthers were forced to quickly regain focus in order to prepare for Saturday’s game against perennial NESCAC powerhouse Trinity College.

The Trinity game, like the Cortland game, was a 60-minute battle with both teams scoring back and forth until the final whistle. Middlebury was the first to fire with Instrum finishing a goal unassisted after a scoreless first four minutes of the game. This was followed by a three-goal streak by Trinity, only to be stopped by another unassisted goal from Instrum. Middlebury and Trinity would go goal for goal for the rest of the half. Megan Griffin ’16, Chrissy Ritter ’16 and Herzog each added a goal for Middlebury to make the score 5-6 in favor of Trinity going into the second half.

Middlebury quickly tied the game three minutes into the second half with Alli Sciarretta ’16 finishing a pass from Griffin. The goal-swapping continued with Middlebury’s taking the lead at one point off of a goal from Herzog to put the score at 8-7. Trinity responded with two goals with 20 minutes left in the half to make the score 8-9 in its favor. Chrissy Ritter was able to finish a pass from sister Katie with 11:38 left in the game, but this was not enough to stop the Bantams. Trinity’s Molly Cox scored her third of the day to put Trinity up 10-9 with 10:33 left in the game.

The Panther defense was again without Deoul against Trinity, but found leadership in Palomba who finished the game with 6 saves.

“I think we need to focus our attention on playing a full 60 minutes of Middlebury lacrosse and being mentally tough in those close games,” Katie Ritter said. “We learned a lot from these two games and now it’s about applying what we’ve learned and moving forward from there.”

On Tuesday, April 15, the Panthers played host to Union for a non-conference matchup, defeating the Dutchmen 15-8 on the strength of eight goals from Pascal.

Middlebury jumped out to a large early lead against Union, taking an 11-4 advantage into halftime. That margin would prove too much for Union to overcome.

Pascal’s scoring total, which came on just 10 shots, is the second largest single-game offensive output by any one player in program history, and the most since 1993.

The Panthers next square off with Colby on Saturday, April 19 on Kohn field. If they can get past the Mules, Middlebury will have a final shot to improve their seed for the upcoming NESCAC tournament when they travel to Williams the following week for the final game of the regular season.