Field hockey wins eighth straight

Middlebury (10-3) kept their impressive streak rolling Saturday with a dominant 4-1 victory over the Bates Bobcats (4-9), the team’s eighth straight win. More importantly, the win clinches home field advantage for the 13th-ranked Panthers for the first round of the upcoming NESCAC final tournament.
The victory comes on the heels of an eight game winning streak; one that began with a 2-1 victory over Colby on Oct. 2. Five of the next six Middlebury games ended with the opposing team scoreless, with the team only allowing a goal to Amherst in a 4-1 victory while shutting out Union, Keene State, Connecticut College, Wesleyan and St. Lawrence, three of which came on the opposition’s home turf.
Saturday’s game continued to display the new defensive dominance the Panthers have shown during their win streak. Despite letting in a goal for the first time in five contests, it was one of only two shots the Panther defense would allow the Bobcats to take throughout the game and it came on a Bates penalty corner. The goal came only three minutes and eighteen seconds into the game, as Lyndsay Beaton was able to take advantage of the only penalty corner Bates would see in the game. Most of the game saw the ball in Middlebury’s offensive zone, as the Bobcats struggled to penetrate the excellent Panther midfield play.
Offensively, the Panthers continued to ride the hot streak of forward Lauren Greer ’13, who finished the game with a hat trick. Greer’s first goal tied the game at the nine-minute mark, as she finished off an offensive flurry with a reverse stick rebound that found the back of the net. Just four minutes later, Greer slashed through the Bobcat defenders, nearly giving the Panthers a half-time lead with a shot that clanked off of the Bate’s goal post.
With the momentum clearly in their favor, the Panthers would dominate the second half. Greer scored her second goal of the contest early in the half with a blast from the top of the offensive circle that whizzed by goalie Katie McEnroe to give the Panthers a 2-1 advantage. With 15 minutes remaining in the contest, mid-fielder Charlotte Gardiner ’13 gave Middlebury an insurance goal, finishing off a Panther attack despite two impressive saves from McEnroe. Just eight seconds later, Greer took a feed from Gardiner and found the back of the net for the third time, giving Middlebury the secure 4-1 lead the game would end with.
Goalie Becca Shaw ’12 needed to make just one save to get the win, while McEnroe’s 19 saves for Bates were not enough to make up for the Panther’s defensive dominance. Greer’s hat trick gives her a team-leading 14 goals on the season.
Middlebury wraps up their regular season at Williams on Friday before preparing for their yet to be decided NESCAC quarterfinal match-up.