Fall sports preview

Men's soccer After a dramatic goal scored by Robbie Redmond ’12 with little time left in regulation, an own goal in the 97th minute of the 2009 NESCAC Championship game against Williams brought the Panthers men’s soccer season to an abrupt end. The team had been on a roll, coming into the game having won six of its final seven games, conceding only four goals over that span. While head coach Dave Saward described last fall’s season-ending loss as being “sick as a parrot,” especially considering the decisive goal was scored on a failed clearing attempt, the team is confident in its chances for the 2010 season.
“National title is what this team’s looking at,” said Fielding Jenks ’13.5, a fresh face on the 2010 roster. “These guys aren’t here to mess around when it comes to soccer.”
In order to accomplish this the team will be looking at new players to “put their stamp on the program,” says Saward. None of the seven graduated seniors were amongst the leaders in team scoring, yet their absence nevertheless gives others a chance to fill the leadership void.
“The team has to establish its own identity quickly,” said Saward, “as the results of the 2009 season are in the past.”
The team has been working hard this preseason in preparation for their season opener at Tufts on Saturday, Sept. 11. Led by Saward, who in the words of Jenks is “very much on the same wave length as his players,” the team will look to threaten for a NESCAC championship and possibly a national title. With the return of its top five leading scorers from a season ago, the team is primed for a strong campaign.
–– Owen Teach, Staff Writer

Women's soccer The Middlebury women’s soccer team had a long and impressive run in the NESCAC playoffs and into the NCAA national tournament last fall, and expectations for this season are exceptionally high for this Division-III soccer powerhouse. The Panthers are returning a strong core of veteran players, including leading scorer Annie Rowell ’11 and standout goalie Lauryn Torch ’11. Captained by Torch, Katie Ruymann ’11 and Drew Smith ’11, the team is anchored by strong leadership and talent in its senior class.
Last fall also saw tremendous contributions from the large crop of skilled first-years, including game-winning goals (Amy Schlueter ’13 had two on the season) and high quality play from a variety of positions. In addition to the impressive depth of the squad, head coach Peter Kim welcomes four new first-years into the fold, all of whom are poised to make an immediate impact.
“Players worked very hard this preseason, not only competing for spots on the team but also preparing for our huge opening weekend away at Tufts and Wheaton,” said Kim. “The team this year will be a good mix of experience and youth, with good team speed and a very attack-minded style.” A potent offense has been a hallmark of the team in past seasons, as they averaged 2.3 goals per game last fall, scoring 46 goals in total.
The team is certainly strong on both sides of the ball, however, and the Panther defense posed a formidable roadblock for opponents in the 2009 season –– the team’s goals against average was just .81 per game. Torch makes both routine and superman-style saves look easy, and ended the season with a stingy .846 save percentage. Given this high standard of performance, Middlebury will definitely be a dominating presence in the division yet again this fall, and looks to repeat their 2009 season opening win vs. Tufts as they travel to Medford, Mass. this weekend to battle the Jumbos.
–– Katie Siegner, Sports Editor

Volleyball With a 20-win season under their belts at the end of the regular season last fall, Panthers volleyball fell short in the first round of NESCAC playoffs, and this fall the players have set their sights on redemption. Middlebury is a perennial threat in the competitive NESCAC division, and this fall the squad is one of the strongest that captain Jane Handel ’12 has seen in her college career.
“This is the deepest and strongest team I’ve been on at school, and I’m excited to see how we compete in our matches this weekend,” said Handel. “It will be great to have the ability to be flexible with our roster this year, depending on the type of team we are playing.” The team graduated four seniors, and replaced those with a promising group of four first-years. While preseason was, in the words of Thomas Hobbs, “nasty, brutish and short,” the team managed to balance intense training sessions with fun team bonding excursions to a ropes course and to Lake Dunmore.
This balance of dedicated training and team chemistry is sure to spell great things for the squad this fall, as they have ambitious short and long-term goals for the season. Handel racked up an array of post-season awards last fall and first-year Julia Gibbs ’13 was NESCAC rookie of the year, so clearly the team is returning an plethora of talent. They travel to Endicott Friday, Sept. 10 to open the season, and with a couple wins could be poised to break into the Great Eight.
–– Katie Siegner, Sports Editor

Football The leaves on the trees are slowly beginning to change and the sweltering heat of August has diminished to a cooler autumnal September. For Coach Bob Ritter and his team these mean one thing above all else: the beginning of football season.
The Panthers return a strong nucleus of players on both offense and defense from a team that finished the 2009 regular season by winning its last four games. Among those returning players is senior quarterback Donald McKillop ’11 who will begin his third year starting under center. Over the course of the past two seasons McKillop has broken nearly every Middlebury passing record, setting new single season passing records in yards, touchdowns, and completions last season. In addition to McKillop, coach Ritter, the second winningest football coach (percentage-wise) in Middlebury College’s history, stressed that the team will rely heavily on its senior leadership –– this is one of the strengths of this year’s team, particularly on defense. As a result, perhaps the biggest improvement will come on the defensive side of the ball, where the Panthers return seven starters to a unit that had a strong second half of the season last year.
Given the improvement the defense continues to make and a potent offense that scored less than 25 points just once last year, the Panthers should be gearing up for an exciting season that begins Saturday, Sept. 25th at home against Wesleyan. The Panthers have not played the Cardinals since the 2007 season, but have won their last two meetings with their Connecticut rival.
Despite a very talented and experienced roster, Coach Ritter insists that the team will stay focused on just the week ahead. “We only talk about the next game,” Ritter said. “We are always looking to be 1-0 so we are building to beat Wesleyan.”
–– Damon Hatheway, Staff Writer

Cross Country As head coach Terry Aldrich enters the 36th and final season of his illustrious career leading the Middlebury cross country teams, he aims to push his teams to surpass their already lofty achievements from the previous season. They open with a short bus trip to the Dartmouth Invitational and the tall order of taking on the elite teams of Dartmouth, Williams and Yale. Middlebury did not attend this Invitational last year but looks to take on stiffer competition after their strong finish to last season, featuring the men taking fourth place at NESCAC championships and the women claiming first at NESCAC’s and fourth at nationals.
Both teams return a strong core of runners under the leadership of men’s captains Nat Nelson ’11, Jack Terrett ’11 and Danny Dickson ’11, and women’s captains Emma Robson ’11, Cailey Condit ’11 and Margo Cramer ’12. This foundation is supplemented with a large freshman class of eight new women and seven new men who have made a strong impression in the preseason.
“We had a great preseason together and are all really excited, because the whole team is healthy and we have this strong fresh class coming in,” said Dana Callahan ’12, commenting on the influx of new talent. Both teams trained hard in the midst of a late-summer heat wave during last week’s preseason, and are ready to heat it up on the trails this fall.
–– Brooks Coe, Sports Editor

Field hockey The field hockey team is set to build on its impressive string of seven consecutive appearances in the NCAA tournament, looking for vengeance after being knocked out in a heartbreaking 2-1 loss to Trinity in the regionals. Unfortunately, the Panthers won’t be returning Heather McCormack and Dana Heritage, graduated seniors who won second-team honors on the New England West All-Region team.
They will, however, be headlining the duo of Lauren Greer ’13 and Chase Delano ’11, who were the team’s leading scorers and garnered first-team regional recognition last year. They combined for 29 goals (a whopping 46 percent of the team’s goals for the season) and outpaced Middlebury’s opponents by themselves, who only mustered 27 goals total against the Panthers’ defense.
Next Saturday, Sept. 18, the Panthers take on Trinity on their home turf in what should be a cutthroat rematch of their final game of last season, and perhaps a preview of another matchup in regionals. Needless to say, the entire team has this date in mind and has been training for it since the end of last year. Make sure to come out and support them in their retaliatory effort against rival Trinity, and of course later on in November for NESCAC championship competition and what should be an eighth consecutive foray into the NCAA’s.
–– Brooks Coe, Sports Editor

Rugby Middlebury rugby has established a tradition of excellence since the foundation of the club in 1972. They were the DII Men’s Collegiate National Champions in 2007 and 2009 and New England Rugby Football Union Champions (NERFU) in 2001-2003 and 2005-2008. This fall the team is looking forward to continuing that tradition, beginning with their home exhibition game against Harvard on September 11th.
After a season-ending loss to Miami University of Ohio in the quarterfinals of the national tournament last spring, the Middlebury College Rugby Club (MCRC) is eagerly anticipating their return to the pitch this fall.
“Everyone has been working hard over the summer, and our expectations for the year couldn’t be higher,” said co-captain Brian Sirkia ’12.5. “We have a couple of losses from last year that still sting and the team is excited to get another crack at those teams.”
Finishing third in the nation last season left the team unsatisfied, motivating them to avenge the few tough losses from last year.
“Our most anticipated match is our final one of the season against UVM which will be a rematch of last year’s heartbreaking loss in the Northeastern final,” said Geoff Kalan ’12.5. “It’s very likely both teams could come into the game undefeated.”
The team lost three seniors from their squad of 27 to graduation, but is excited to welcome the incoming freshmen and other new players to their MCRC family. With the leadership from returning co-captains Rowan Kelner ’12 and Brian Sirkia ’12.5 the team is poised for a dominating season. This year they are working toward reclaiming the Northeastern title, continuing into the spring season and ultimately winning a National Championship.
“Although the final goal is always another National Championship, we’re going to take it one game at a time,” said Sirkia ’12.5.
–– Caroline Cordle, Staff Writer

Tennis Both Middlebury’s men’s and women’s tennis programs enter the 2010-11 season looking to build off of very successful campaigns last year. For the men, that means defending their NESCAC and national titles and attempting to set another school record for wins in a season, a feat they accomplished last year after notching twenty-three victories. For the women, that means improving on an already impressive postseason run last year, which saw them make it to the semi-finals of the NESCAC tournament and the regional final round of the NCAA tournament. The men will be entering this season with a new coach after last year’s NESCAC coach of the year Dave Schwarz accepted the head coaching position at Brown this August. Leading the men will be interim coach and former assistant Rob Barr, who formerly served as the head coach at Southeastern Louisiana University and the University of Louisiana-Monroe. Barr played at Southern Arkansas University during his undergraduate years and helped the Muleriders to a top-10 national ranking in 1984. In addition to replacing their coach, the men will also look to replace a slew of departed seniors, including NESCAC player of the year Andrew Lee ’10. The women’s team, on the other hand, is relatively unchanged entering this season after graduating only two seniors from last year’s squad. Leading the team will be two-time All-American Victoria Aiello ’12 and Alexandra McAtee ’13. McAtee earned second-team All NESCAC honors after her first year with the team last season. Both teams open play this weekend, with the men hosting the Middlebury Invitational on campus and the women traveling to Williams for the Williams invitational.
–– Dillon Hupp, Sports Editor