The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 3/9/06 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Athletic Communications Captains Emily Quizon '06 and Katie Kogut '06 led Middlebury to another NESCAC triumph.

For the second straight season, the Middlebury women's hockey team captured the NESCAC title with a victory over Bowdoin. Where the Panthers emerged from the Championship game with a 5-1 victory last year, they improved on the margin of victory this time around, winning 8-2 last Sunday. A day earlier, the Panthers advanced to the finals after they squeezed by the Mules from Colby with a hard-fought 3-1 victory.

The Mules rode a hot goalie on Saturday as she managed to reject 45 of 48 Panther shots on goal. But the offense failed to generate enough quality chances to beat the top ranked Middlebury squad. According to coach Mandigo, Colby had "an excellent goalie and they packed players in front of the net to clog up the middle."

This proved to be an extremely effective strategy as the Panthers found themselves firing slap-shot after slap-shot into a crowded goal area hoping for one to sneak through. While never looking likely to beat the Panthers, the Mules executed a plan designed to prevent Middlebury from scoring, with the hope of sneaking in a goal of their own. Their strategy worked for the first two periods as the teams went into the locker room scoreless during the second break.

Conditioning, persistence and greater technical ability finally paid off as Annmarie Cellino '09 banged home a rebound off Emily Quizon's '06 shot from the right side. Coach Mandigo's women finally broke the scoreless deadlock at 8:21 of the third period, but just as a palpable sigh of relief swept around the arena, the game was deadlocked once again. Just 14 seconds after NESCAC Rookie of the Year, Cellino opened the scoring, the Polar Bears evened up the score with a one-timer off the stick of Colby's own first-year, Rebecca Julian.

But that would be as close as they got as the Panther's greater desire proved decisive as the third period wore on. With just over eight minutes remaining, Erika Nakamura '09 screened the Colby keeper and managed to get a stick on the Tania Kenney's '08 shot from outside. After two goals from first-year players, Quizon finished the Mules off with a diving effort. She returned to her feet to celebrate, confident that she had led her team back to the NESCAC finals.

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools