Women’s lacrosse turns the tables on Bates in first game

The 15th ranked Panthers (1-0, 1-0 NESCAC) won their season-opener in overtime against the Bates Bobcats this past Saturday in Lewiston, Maine.
The team came from behind to secure a 10-9 victory with the help of Sally Ryan’s ’11 five goals and two assists, Liz Garry’s ’12 three goals, 15 saves by Lily Nguyen ’12 and Stephanie Gill’s ’12 seven draw controls.
Ryan scored the first goal of the game, but Bates proceeded to score the next four. The Panthers battled back to even the game at 4-4 before the teams exchanged goals putting the game at 5-5 at the end of the first half.
Garry thought the team looked “rushed” in the beginning and the Bobcats capitalized on this common first game mistake. Bates’ goalie Mara Krueger made nine saves in the game, five of which were on eight meter shots during the first half.
After halftime, the Panthers stepped on the field determined.
“We were not losing this game,” said Garry.  “[We planned to] slow things down on the attack and just look for smart opportunities.”
Middlebury trailed 9-7 with just under three minutes left to play in regulation. After, as Garry put it, “slowly chipping away the clock,” the captains cut the lead to 9-8 as Ryan fed the ball to Chase Delano ’11 for a goal with 2:27 left. Garry evened the game with just 31 seconds left to play with an unassisted goal.
Goalie Nguyen recognized her team’s change in attitude and play.
“We stole all of the momentum towards the end of the game,” she said, “and played with a composed urgency. We simply got smarter and faster with our playing.”
This was the first time since 18:16 remaining in the first half that the Bobcats did not hold the lead, and the Panthers secured the next draw control to send the game into overtime with the momentum in their favor.
Nguyen set the tone for overtime, blocking a shot by Bates’ Jenna Davis nearly two minutes into overtime. As Gill and Lucy Jackson ’12 describe it, Nguyen “came up with huge saves in the last ten minutes that created the offensive opportunities we needed.”
This was evident as Ryan capitalized on Nguyen’s save by transitioning the ball to offense and scoring the lone goal in overtime with 3:44 left to play. With the help of a strong defense led by Hannah Epstein ’12, who had five ground balls and three caused turnovers, Nguyen held off three more shots from the Bobcats in overtime.
After Nguyen saved the last shot by Bates’ Caroline Piece, Middlebury was able to preserve the win by running the final 72 seconds off the clock. Nguyen was confident in her team throughout.
“I don’t think there was any doubt in our minds that we were going to let this one get away,” she said.
The team shared the same confidence in its goalie, as Jackson and Gill recognized that Nguyen “continued to shut down the Bates attack letting them know neither she nor the [rest of the team] were ready to give into the Bobcats.”
The Panthers ultimately proved themselves a force to be reckoned with, the depth on their roster being one of their strongest assets.
“It was a full team effort,” said Nguyen, “and it was awesome to see both rookies and returners stepping up to make impact.”
Middlebury hopes to ride this momentum into next week when they host Wesleyan in another NESCAC matchup on Saturday at 12 p.m. at Kohn Field.