Women’s Lacrosse Eases Past Conn. College in Season Opener

The Middlebury women’s lacrosse team opened its season on the road with a 17-6 win over Connecticut College on Saturday, March 5 and a 17-5 win at Rensselaer on Tuesday, March 8.

Saturday’s matchup was the women’s first contest without the leadership of former Head Coach Missy Foote, who led the program for 34 seasons. In her final season, Foote guided the team to a 16-4 record and an appearance in the NCAA Final Four. Replacing Coach Foote is Kate Livesay ’03, who returns to Middlebury after serving as head coach of the Trinity women’s lacrosse team from 2010-2014 before joining the Panthers as an assistant coach in 2015. Coach Livesay commented on her first win as Middlebury’s head coach following Saturday’s victory.

“[The win is a] nice affirmation of all the hard work over preseason,” Livesay said. “You never know exactly what team is going to show up when there is no game to scout prior to playing a new team.  For us, it was important that we were able to have success in many of the new things we were trying and to have a win on top of that is great.”

Middlebury’s win was a team effort with nine different players scoring goals. However, the undeniable star of the game was captain Laurel Pascal ’16, who matched Conn. College’s entire scoring effort by adding six of her own on the day.

Pascal was not the only midfielder who had an outstanding game. Alli Sciarretta ’16, Hollis Perticone ’18 and Bridget Instrum ’16 each finished the game with two goals apiece, while Mary O’Connell ’17 dished out six assists in addition to scoring a goal herself. The scoring was rounded out by Chrissy Ritter ’16, Bea Eppler ’17, Hailey Cosseboom ’17 and Emma McDonagh ’19, who each contributed a goal to the win.

Middlebury established a fast pace early on in the contest, quickly surging to a 5-0 lead.  Conn. College responded with two goals to round out the score at 5-2.  From that point, the Panthers dominated the game, mounting a 7-0 run to close out the first half.

Leading 12-2 at the half, the Panthers kept the pressure on Connecticut College by maintaining a strong offensive effort throughout the remainder of the game.

First-year Goaltender Kate Furber ’19 played the majority of the game, recording four saves in her collegiate debut.  Madeleine Kinker ’16 finished the game in the net for the Panthers. Livesay believes that Furber is going to make an immediate impact for the Panthers.

“She is very aggressive, vocal and quick. She also anticipates very well,” Livesay said.

The coach expects Furber to be a “big presence” within the team’s high tempo defense as the season progresses. Outside of the cage, the Panther defense was anchored by strong performances from Maggie Caputi ’16 and Jessie Yorke ’17.

“Defense was the strength of our team that day,” Livesay added.

Having an extra week of preseason before their first game this year allowed the team to “both mentally and physically prepare for the season,” Kate Hodgson ’16 said.  Several members of the team believe that the extended preseason preparation was an integral part of their win this past weekend.

“As a whole, we are stronger and faster than we have ever been in past years and I think that comes from our conditioning in preseason,” Eppler said.

On Tuesday, Middlebury dominated Rensselaer from the beginning, jumping out to a 3-0 lead within the first 3:20 of play and cruising to a 17-5 win. Ritter and Sciarretta both scored three goals, while O’Connell assisted on two.

The team will travel to the Boston area this weekend for a doubleheader on Saturday, March 12 against Tufts followed by a second contest on Sunday, March 13 versus MIT. Tufts handed the Panthers one of their four losses last season in a tight game that was decided by a score of 12-11.