Middlebury women's volleyball swept Skidmore College and rallied to beat the Hamilton Continentals in a pair of matches at Pepin Gymnasium last week. The wins pushed the Panthers to an 11-2 record, their best start since 2021.
It’s familiar territory for a program that won the NESCAC championship in 2024. Though the 2025 season fell short of expectations, it laid the groundwork for a younger core to develop and adapt at the collegiate level. That group needed a response on Tuesday, Sept. 22, after a tough road loss to nationally ranked Wesleyan.
Skidmore was no easy draw. The Thoroughbreds came in at 7-4, a few weeks removed from a 3-2 win over NESCAC rival Williams. Their key player, No. 9 Chloe Heitman, was averaging 3.00 kills a set with a .217 hitting percentage for the season. Middlebury would have to trust their block and defense to shut them down.
Despite trailing early in the first set 4-9, the Panthers leaned on each other and took each point one at a time. Soon enough, they shook off their early-game nerves, prevailing 25-20.
After the stumble in the first set, the floodgates opened: Middlebury blitzed through the second set with a staggering 25-7 win. Riding off of their momentum, the Panthers closed out the third set 25-14. Senior Captain Molly Harrison ’27 led the charge, pacing both teams at the end with 14 kills. “We played a really clean game,” libero Annabella Rando ’28 said. “By putting pressure on Skidmore with our serving and blocking well, our hitters were able to be really aggressive at the net and dominate offensively.”
The biggest strength for the Panthers was their depth. Sixteen Panthers saw the court, all contributing to the relentless barrage of fire against the Thoroughbreds. The exclamation point came from middle blocker Sophie Fischer ’28 on her first point of the game, who stuffed a Skidmore attack for a block. Players on and off the court erupted. At this moment and on, the Panthers’ closeness and trust as a team was most evident.
Four days later, the Panthers hosted the Continentals. Even with the momentum from Tuesday’s game, Middlebury needed to be ready for a whole different task — conference play. Conference matchups are tough to predict with parity plaguing the NESCAC for years. Even the 2024 NESCAC champion Panthers lost to bottom ranked Hamilton and Amherst — a testament to the NESCACs rise in the volleyball scene. In fact, the conference is set to have one of their strongest campaigns ever. The AVCA D3 Coaches poll ranked Colby and Wesleyan in the top 15 and three more teams — Middlebury, Tufts, and Bowdoin — received votes over the past two weeks. This comes after the NESCAC sent its most teams ever (four) to the NCAA championship last year, a record that may be broken again this season.
The Continentals entered the game after beating Amherst in a five set thriller. Off the bat, one side was clearly ready to play. Hamilton never looked back after a 12-2 lead, eventually winning the first set 25-13, aided by their blistering 0.370 hitting percentage. Slow starts have hurt the Panthers game in conference play so far, who dropped the first set against Amherst 17-25 and saw an uninspired first two sets (11-25, 13-25) against Wesleyan.
The flip side? The Panthers seem to always find their groove, albeit too late at times. Following the first set loss to the Continentals, the Panthers boasted a 0.202 hitting percentage in the following three sets, holding their opponents just under 0.124. Molly MacDonald ’29 paved the way for the comeback win, reaching a career high in kills and attempts in the match. “I am so proud of the team,” MacDonald said. “We started off slow and complacent against Hamilton, and we weren’t playing our game.” There was a clear shift in energy heading into the second set. With the game being their conference opener, “we knew we needed to defend Pepin [Gymnasium],” MacDonald closed.
Exactly halfway throughout the season, the Panthers have lots to be proud of but have lingering questions to answer. With such strong NESCAC opponents, Middlebury cannot afford more of these uncharacteristic, slow starts. The team faces a tough weekend, playing Bates this Friday, Oct. 2 at 7 p.m, followed by Tufts on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 2 p.m. These games will be very telling for the rest of the Panthers’ season. Will their slow starts continue and hinder them? Or will the team ground themselves and play to their capabilities?
