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(03/04/15 7:01pm)
This past weekend, MiddCORE launched their first Springboard Weekend, taking a program that is usually taught during summer or in a J-term course, and packing it into a weekend. In groups of three to four, students had three days to identify a campus issue, research the problem and do a presentational pitch to Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean of the College Katy Smith Abbott, among other Middlebury faculty. Students addressed campus issues such as social life, the athletic divide and lack of sex- positive education and introverted spaces.
Set in the Kirk Alumni House, the crash course on leadership and innovation included talks given by Former COO of Life is Good Roy Hefferman, Founder of LeaderScope Consulting Mary Hurlie, Cofounder of Curious Industries Blake Glenn, Instructor in Persuasive Communication Mike Kiernan and MiddCORE Marketing Director EJ Bartlett.
MiddCORE has been growing exponentially with numerous additions to the entrepreneurial program. They have just recently opened their own office on campus located in DKE Alumni House next to the Axinn Center at Starr Library and have seen an influx of funding and guest speakers from administration and donors who value the program’s efforts.
MiddCORE promotes itself as Middlebury’s innovative summer and J-term program for undergraduates and recent graduates. The program instills in its students real-world life skills — such as leadership, collaboration, negotiation, networking, communication, and decision-making, among others. MiddCORE is most well-known for its four-week intensive summer program in which students reside in Tahoe, Sierra Nevada College where they work with upwards of 40 highly qualified and successful mentors, attend 52 hands-on skill-based workshops, spend 20 hours developing their creative ideas and enjoy 60 meals with their mentors. The impressive list of mentors from an array of backgrounds and successes include familiar names such as Marc Randolph, Co-Founder and former CEO of Netflix; Heffernan; and former governors, Company CEO’s, Executives, Directors, artists, and journalists.
In addition to a plethora of external mentors, many of Middlebury’s own faculty members are deeply invested in the program. Associate Professor of Economics Jessica Holmes also serves as the leading Director of MiddCORE. Holmes views MiddCORE’s entrepreneurial education as coinciding cohesively with Middlebury’s mission statement.
She suggests that MiddCORE, like the College articulates in its mission statement, strives to “cultivate the intellectual, creative, physical, ethical, and social qualities essential for leadership in a rapidly changing global community.”
Holmes added that students are in need of opportunities to gain better leadership and innovative skills.
“This generation is seeking out the toolkits and mentorship that will help them achieve greater impact in the world,” Holmes said.
MiddCORE appears to be the program and opportunity to do so. MiddCORE creates an environment that challenges students to test themselves and apply their liberal arts education to real life strategic problems and scenarios. It is argued that MiddCORE is not changing the academic mission at the College, but rather accompanying it. While many see the benefits reaped from MiddCORE, others challenge it, critiquing that it may be a step away from a liberal art education and not holding true to the College’s disciplines.
No other NESCACs offer a program like MiddCORE, making the application process extremely competitive and selective.
According to Holmes, “MiddCORE is a real differentiator for Middlebury.”
Students at the College are able to apply to the J-term session for free, where as the Tahoe program, open to students and grads from other schools, costs roughly $10,000. While some need-based financial aid is available only to students already on the College’s financial aid, scholarships are limited and the price differentiation can be a major setback for students interested in participating during the summer. A complaint voiced by students around campus is the lack of availability and limited acceptance to the highly- demanded program.
“If there is such a high number of credible student applicants, why can’t they add more sessions or expand the program to accommodate us?” a student rejected from the J-term program said, who wished to remain anonymous.
Many students do not have the means to answer the large expense of the Tahoe session, and find themselves unable to ever participate if they could not otherwise participate in the free J-term session.
“We are currently limited by a staff that is shrinking, not growing,” Holmes said. “So for now, we are focused on ensuring high quality J-term and summer MiddCORE immersion experiences for all our students and mentors.”
The program is extremely demanding, time-consuming and challenging. Students work long hours, daily, for four weeks straight, proving especially trying in J-term when many of their peers are enjoying the relaxed nature of taking one class. That said, nearly all students interviewed after their MiddCORE experience spoke positively and found the end results vastly more rewarding than tolling.
“[MiddCORE] has affected me in powerful ways. I didn’t really understand what ‘failing forward’ meant when this program started…I’m more excited than ever to take risks and more willing to accept the possibility of failure,” one recent participant said.
In incorporating an innovative and distinctive new style of teaching and learning, MiddCORE is inevitably greeted with contrasting opinions. A reoccurring thought gathered among students interviewed who had not participated was that MiddCORE is too much of a time commitment in addition to being expensive: “I think it is a cool idea and program, but I just don’t have the time to dedicate four weeks out of my summer when I could be working,” shared one student at the College.
Despite critique, the influx in applications and competition for acceptance as well as the demand for program growth are indisputable. Such attributes are representative of the positive effects and influence MiddCORE has on its students.
“The most rewarding part of MiddCORE was learning that I have creative capabilities to contribute to the world. It was about rediscovering my skills and passions and combining them together to bring about some innovation into society,” another MiddCORE participant said.
An aspiration for the program would be to relinquish some of the financial stresses for students with an increase in donations, but until then, directors are focused on bettering the program internally. MiddCORE is providing students with a unique opportunity to stray from traditional curriculum and initiate creative ideas to impact our world.
(11/19/14 10:00pm)
The Middlebury women’s field hockey team has earned a spot in the NCAA Division-III semifinals this past weekend, winning their own regional tournament to move on to the final rounds, hosted in Lexington, Va. on Nov. 22 and 23. The Panthers earned a pair of victories in the regional rounds on Peter Kohn Field this past Friday and Saturday, Nov. 14 and 15.
The Panthers opened the weekend on Saturday against the University of New England. A tough fight was expected out of UNE as they finished their regular season 11-1 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference and received several individual league honors such as defensive player of the year for Beth Sullivan as well as coach of the year for Danielle Collins.
Despite these accolades the Panthers were able to best the Nor’easters, earning a shutout win of 7-0.
Jillian Green ’16 began the scoring just under nine minutes into the game, tapping the ball into the goal off of an original shot by Pam Schulman ’17. Within the next five minutes the Panthers would accumulate two more goals to start an early lead of 3-0 in the first 15 minutes of play.
The second goal of the day came from Cat Fowler ’15 off of a pass from Olivia Jurkowitz ’17, who dribbled down the left side of the field before finding Fowler in the middle ready to receive a cross. Jurkowitz and Schulman would prove to have excellent games, both tallying two goals and an assist each.
Schulman scored her first of two goals on the day just before the 15-minute mark with an unassisted drive from the right side of the field, rifling a shot past the UNE goaltender. Jurkowitz scored her two goals back to back within ten minutes of each other to close the first half, with Fowler assisting on both goals.
The second half proved a possession game for the Panthers who netted two more goals to clinch their progression into the next round of regionals held on Sunday. Green scored her second goal of the day 50 minutes in off of a penalty corner. Fowler was the final player to score on Saturday with an unassisted tap into the goal from outside the six with 55 minutes on the clock.
The Panthers moved on 18-1 while UNE’s season was brought to an end with a final record of 17-7.
Ursinus College faced Franklin and Marshall on Saturday afternoon as well in a competitive matchup, ultimately defeating the Diplomats 2-1 to advance into the final round of regionals on Sunday against the Panthers.
Second-ranked Middlebury defeated fifth-ranked Ursinus 5-1 on Sunday to win the NCAA regional final and secure a spot in the final four. An early hat trick from Bridget Instrum ’16, her second of the season, would solidify the Panthers’ lead throughout the game.
Ursinus came out strong in the opening minutes of the game, but Panther goalie Emily Knapp ’15 was able to block both attempts. A change of pace came for the Panthers, who proceeded to score five goals in a row, eliminating any chance for Ursinus to reestablish a foothold in the contest.
Instrum started her hat trick with a goal 18 minutes into play, assisted by a cross from the left from Alyssa DiMaio ’15. Fowler crossed the ball from the right six minutes later to find Instrum again in front of the goal.
Instrum’s hat trick was completed at the start of the second half, 39 minutes into play, when she drove the ball down the left side of the field before tapping it past the Ursinus goalie.
Schulman got on the board again with a goal assisted by Jurkowitz at the 44-minute mark. The final Panther goal of regionals came 11 minutes later, scored by Green who tapped in a cross coming from Fowler.
Meanwhile, Ursinus managed just one goal against the Panthers when Danielle Stong managed to push in rebounded shot.
The 5-1 victory on Sunday means the Panthers advance on to the national semifinals for the sixth time in the program’s history. Middlebury will face fourth-ranked, The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) in the semis while third-ranked Bowdoin will play top-ranked Salisbury.
The Panthers move onto nationals with an impressive 19 victories thus far this season, tying the current Middlebury record previously set in 2003.
Middlebury and TCNJ last saw each other in the national championship game back in 2011, the current seniors’ first year in the program. The Panthers fell 3-1 in that contest, marking the last time that they have participated in a national championship. Clearly that loss will weigh on the seniors’ minds as they look to cap off their historic 2014 season in Virginia.
(11/13/14 12:31am)
A go-ahead blast from Cat Fowler ’15 in the final minute of play gave the Middlebury women’s field hockey team its third consecutive NESCAC title, as the Panthers defeated top-seed Bowdoin 2-1 in the conference championship game on Sunday, Nov. 9 in Brunswick, Maine.
The Panthers, who defeated Trinity 3-1 in Saturday’s semifinal to reach Sunday’s final for the fourth consecutive year, claimed the NESCAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, which begins play this week.
The weekend for the second-seeded Panthers began on Saturday afternoon with a semifinal matchup against the third-seeded Trinity Bantams. A strong Trinity defense proved no problem for Middlebury’s top scorer Fowler, who was able to score unassisted just five minutes into play. The Panthers scored again with a goal by Jillian Green ’16 who was able to capitalize off of an initial shot by teammate Olivia Jurkowitz ’17.
Trinity managed to get in on the scoring with a goal by leading scorer Kelcie Finn at the 24-minute mark. However, their offensive pressure in the beginning of the second half could not translate into any more goals for the Bantams.
Fowler secured the win with a goal 40 minutes into the game coming off of a corner caused by a yellow card distributed to the Bantams goalie. This goal marked Fowler’s 18th of the season, making her the third-highest goalscorer in the NESCAC.
Overall Middlebury had 15 shots, of which eight went on goal, while Trinity had seven shots with four on goal. Middlebury received nine penalty corners, capitalizing on one of them, while the Bantams received four.
The NESCAC championship game the following day marked the fourth consecutive year that Middlebury and Bowdoin have met in the conference title game. The Panthers looked to continue their current two-title streak against Bowdoin after last falling to the Polar Bears back in 2011, the first year for the current seniors. With this long-enduring rivalry and tension in the air, the two teams faced each other at noon on Ryan Field.
Bowdoin all-conference selection Rachel Kennedy scored the first goal of the game in the tenth minute to cause an early advantage for the Polar Bears.
The Panthers worked tirelessly in the attacking end and capitalized off of their first corner 31 minutes into play. Hollis Perticone ’18 jumped on an opportunity to score off of a rebound after a Bowdoin midfielder stopped the ball on the goal line. The teams went into halftime tied with one goal each.
The two talented and evenly matched teams played back and forth, both with promising scoring opportunities, but to no avail. Middlebury worked the ball around the goalie box off of multiple penalty corners but with no change in score. Panther goalie Emily Knapp ’15 made a crucial charging save to keep the Polar Bears from netting a game-winning goal in the final nine minutes of play.
It appeared that the NESCAC championship would enter overtime play. This outlook quickly changed when with less than two minutes left to play, Middlebury earned a corner taken by Alyssa DiMaio ’15. DiMaio inserted the ball into the box, finding the stick of teammate Fowler, who fired a shot through the Polar Bear defense and past the goalie to score the game winner with just 26 seconds remaining in regulation time.
The Panthers stormed the field in celebration as time ran out. Middlebury led the game statistically with seven shots on goal to Bowdoin’s two and five penalty corners against two for the Polar Bears.
The goal earned Fowler NESCAC Player of the Week recognition and puts her second in the program’s all-time rankings for career points overall. Such honors will likely place her as a prominent contender for National Player of the Year.
The Panthers earned the automatic bid into the Division-III NCAA tournament and will host a regional round this coming weekend with games on both Saturday and Sunday.
The victor of Sunday’s regional final will earn a spot to the national semifinals in Lexington, VA on Saturday Nov. 23. The Panthers have made 12 consecutive appearances in NCAA tournament play and 15 overall, and look to capitalize on their momentum as they look to launch a deep run into the national tournament.
(11/05/14 6:54pm)
With a big defeat over Colby this past Saturday, the Middlebury field hockey team will advance on to the semifinal round of the NESCAC tournament. The Panthers defeated the Mules 4-1 at home on Peter Kohn field to secure their progression in the tournament.
An early goal for the Panthers scored by Annie Leonard ’18 came just three minutes into the game and would put them ahead of the Mules for the remainder of the game. The goal was made possible by an assist off of Bridget Instrum ’16 who carried the ball all the way from the defensive to the attacking end before crossing it in front of the cage to be tapped in by Leonard.
No scoring occurred for the following 22 minutes as the two teams battled it out on the field, competing for the opportunity to prolong their seasons and advance to the NESCAC semifinals. Colby fought hard on attack with a close shot coming at the 20th minute when a player was able to carry the ball down the right side of the field into the goal area. However Panther goalie Emily Knapp ’15 deflected the shot.
26 minutes into the game with a 1-0 lead, the Panthers drew a penalty corner that would be followed with a goal. Alyssa DiMaio ’15 passed a beautiful corner to Anna Kenyon ’16 who passed on the ball to Shannon Hutteman ’16 who hit the back of the net from 15 yards out. The Panthers’ success off of the corner is a testament to their talent this season, and ability to generate goals from strategic corner plays.
Only nine minutes into the second half of play, the Panthers added another goal to the tally with a 3-0 lead over the Mules. Cat Fowler ’15 took a strong drive to goal, which was initially stopped by the mule’s goalie. The rebound of the save then returned to Fowler, who shot again with a reverse sweep shot to earn a goal. In the 55th minute of play in the game Fowler again found the back of the goal in what would be the final Panther goal of the day, making the score 4-0. This goal counted as Fowler’s 16th on the season, putting her first on her team and fourth in the league in goals scored.
The Mules found their only goal of the game in the 59th minute when they were able to draw a penalty corner which resulted in a successful shot from 20 yards out. Despite the setback, the Panthers clinched a 4-1 victory, and advancement into the conference semifinals.
“I think were all really looking forward to taking on Trinity and trying to win our third straight NESCAC championship this weekend,” Olivia Jurkowitz ’17 said.
Instrum commented further on the importance of the weekend’s semifinal matchup to the Panthers’ overall season goals.
“This upcoming weekend will be the highest level of competition we will have faced all season, and will really test our abilities,” Instrum said. “We as a team are really motivated to work hard and prepare all week to make each other better as a team.”
The Panthers simply do not seem ready to let their season end, at least not without putting up a battle.
The second-seeded Panthers take on the third-seeded Trinity Bantams on Saturday, Nov. 8 in Brunswick, ME.
(10/30/14 4:15am)
Saturday marked another shutout this past weekend for the Middlebury Field Hockey team as they defeated the 9th ranked Wesleyan Cardinals at home on Peter Kohn Field. The Panthers finished out their final regular season game with a 6-0 victory over the Cardinals, boosting their record to an impressive 14-1 this season and making them first in the NESCAC.
Bridget Instrum ’16 scored three goals on Saturday accompanied by two from Cat Fowler ’15 and one by Hollis Perticone ’18.
Fowler scored the first two of the day, firing up her teammates just six minutes into play with an unassisted goal off of a penalty stroke. Fowler scored her next goal five minutes later, tapping the ball in off of an initial shot by Anne Entwisle ’15.
The Panthers returned to the field determined to secure a victory after halftime. Instrum brought out a show-stopping performance, scoring the following three goals to earn her first hat trick of the season. Instrum’s first goal came 47 minutes into play and was scored unassisted after a battle over the ball in the Cardinals goal area. Anna Kenyon ’16 assisted Instrum six minutes later for her second goal. Unassisted, Instrum scored her third goal of the game tapping the ball in from two yards out at the 59 minute mark.
Perticone scored the final goal of the game with just 35 seconds left to play. Coming from right field, Fowler passed the ball to Perticone who tapped the ball into the back of the goal, bringing the final score to a remarkable 6-0 win for the Panthers.
Wesleyan was an aggressive and physical team; however, they struggled to counter Middlebury’s offensive success and found themselves defending the Panthers’ attack for a majority of the game. Wesleyan had six shots on net but could not get past Middlebury goalie Emily Knapp ’15. The Panthers had 19 attempts on goal and were able to capitalize on six of them.
When asked what most attributed to the success on offense, Captain Cat Fowler credited the Panthers’ possession game.
“We had the ball for a majority of the game and very rarely found ourselves in our own defensive circle,” Fowler stated.
Fowler summarized the Cardinals’ attack as having good speed among their forwards; however, their play was no match for the unrelenting Panthers.
Wesleyan will host their final regular season game against Connecticut College this week. The Panthers will earn the first seed for the NESCAC tournament where they will host a Quarterfinals taking place on Nov. 1. The Panthers are ambitious and determined, setting their sights on a NESCAC Tournament victory and great success in later NCAA tournament play.
(10/22/14 8:41pm)
The Middlebury women’s field hockey team celebrated a victorious homecoming weekend by defeating Bates this past Saturday, Oct. 18 at home on Peter Kohn Field.
The Panthers came into the game confident from a 7-0 win over Hamilton on Wednesday and proved unrelenting in their Saturday morning NESCAC matchup. Defeating the Bobcats 6-0, the third ranked Panthers add another tally to their current eight-game winning streak.
The opening 12 minutes of the game stayed scoreless until Jillian Green ’16 scored her first of two goals for Middlebury. Senior captain Cat Fowler ’15 provided an assist from eight yards, which Green tapped in with 12:51 on the clock.
Green went on to score the following goal for the Panthers coming off of an assist on the left side by Lauren Berestecky ’17 after a penalty corner allowed the Panthers to work the ball around the circle at the 25-minute mark.
Middlebury controlled the remaining five minutes of play in the half, notching another two goals before the break. Fowler scored off of a shot by Olivia Jurkowitz ’17 with just two minutes to go in the half. Middlebury dominated the possession game, with Berestecky adding one more goal in the final seconds of play before the buzzer sounded.
Accumulating four goals in just the first half, the Panthers shined through the unfavorable rainy conditions and entered the second half with a comfortable lead.
Anna Kenyon ’16 scored the fifth goal of the day and her fourth of the season, tapped in from three yards out and assisted by Pam Schulman ’17. Less than ten minutes later, Fowler scored the final goal of the game, her second of the day, with an unassisted shot that ricocheted off the shin guard of a Bates player and glided into the goal.
The Bobcats were unable to answer the ferocious offense that the Panthers demonstrated, managing only three shots in the game, all to be saved by Middlebury goalkeeper Emily Knapp ’15.
“We were really able to play off of each others strong suits and capitalize on a lot of the penalty corners, ” Berestecky said.
The Bobcats’ goaltenders Cristina Vega and Katie Knox saved a combined ten of the sixteen shots on goal taken by the Panthers.
The Panthers, currently ranked third in the national poll, continue on in the season with a 12-1 record overall and an 8-1 mark in the NESCAC. With just two more regular season games left in the season, the Panthers currently sit atop the conference standings as the season winds down towards the NESCAC tournament.
The Panthers faced Castleton on Tuesday, Oct. 21 in a midweek matchup, earning a resounding victory over the out of conference opponent by a margin of 13-0. Seven different Middlebury players tallied goals in the contest, with hat-trick performances from Josie Trichka ’17 and Annie Leonard ’18. Fowler added two on the day, including her team-high 12th goal of the season.
The team’s performance helped propel Coach Katharine DeLorenzo to her 300th career victory. She now owns a record of 300-114-2 in 14 years of coaching.
Middlebury returns to the field this Saturday, Oct. 25 for a matchup with ninth ranked Wesleyan at home. If the Panthers can get past the Cardinals, they will be able to turn their attention to sharpening their play in anticipation of the postseason. Expectations remain high for this team.
(10/01/14 8:34pm)
The 5th ranked field hockey team proved ferocious this weekend in their determination to regain a winning streak with two wins on the road last week.
The Panthers defeated their NESCAC opponents 3-1 in Waterville, Maine, and continued on the road to Albany, NY where they were victorious over Montclair State in an impressive 9-1 win the following day.
The Panthers led the charge against the Mules early in the game on Bill Alfond Field with a quick goal by sophomore Bridget Instrum ’16 just 2 minutes in. Instrum was unassisted in her first of two goals for the game, and first of three for the weekend.
Middlebury’s eight penalty corners in the first half alone granted them an attacking advantage, allowing them to control the momentum and speed of the game right from the start.
The Panther’s second goal came off of one of these corner opportunities, when a battle for the ball resulted an assist by Shannon Hutteman ’16 to Jillian Green ’16, who knocked the ball into the goal 8:50 into the game.
The Mules tightened up their defense, only allowing Middlebury one penalty corner in the second half. However, it appeared to be too late for the Mules to correct their mistakes from the first half.
Instrum scored her second goal 41 minutes into the game with an assist from Anna Kenyon ’16 to make the score 2-0 Middlebury advantage. Instrum nicely summarized the attacking dominance of the game: “I think we developed some really great offensive opportunities especially from quick transition play and strategically drawn corners.”
The Mules’ one and only goal of the game came during the second half when Caroline Ferguson netted a shot from a penalty corner with only 3:48 remaining on the clock.
Each team finished with 20 shots on goal, but Middlebury pulled ahead by capitalizing on their drawn corners and scoring opportunities. Colby moves on from this game 4-4 in total but 0-4 in the NESCAC while the Panthers improved to 3-1 in NESCAC play.
The Middlebury field hockey team then met up with Montclair State on Sunday, Sept. 28th at a neutral field site in Albany, NY for an out of conference matchup that resulted in a 9-1 victory for the Panthers. The red Hawks (7-2) were no match for the Panthers (6-1) who dominated the game and proved unrelenting in their ability to score.
Hutteman and senior captain Catherine Fowler ’15 each scored two goals in the game, accompanied by one goal each from Lauren Berestecky ’17, Pam Schulman ’17, Kenyon, Annie Leonard ’18 and Instrum.
Middlebury got off to a good start with a goal from Hutteman assisted by Kenyon and Alyssa DiMaio ’15 just 1:17 into the game. The next goal soon followed with an unassisted shot by Fowler at 2:22 off of a penalty stroke to grant her fourth goal of the season.
Next came Berestecky with a goal at the 8:43 mark, assisted by Kenyon. The scoring picked back up again about 20 minutes into the game when Schulman netted her third goal of the season.
Montclair scored their only goal of the game 23 minutes in with a shot by Maura Johnston assisted by Gianna Moglino. Moglino had shot seconds before, but Middlebury goalie Emily Knapp ’15 blocked the attempt.
Middlebury finished out the first half with a goal from Kenyon 32 minutes in, making the score 5-1 Panthers.
The incredible Panther offensive operation wasn’t over yet.
Leonard scored first in the beginning of the second half with a goal assisted by Fowler. Less than 2 minutes after that, Instrum scored her first of the game and third of the weekend off of an assist from Fowler.
Fowler also managed to tuck another one in the goal for herself at the 46-minute mark, making it 5 goals on the season. Hutteman scored the 9th and final goal of the game with 14 minutes remaining to play, assisted by Dimaio and Lauren Schweppe ’18.
While Montclair tried to fight back with multiple substitutions and two more shots on goal in the final stages of the game, none proved successful in thwarting the strong Middlebury defensive line, and Knapp did not let any more shots in the goal. Coming off this impressive 9-1 victory, Middlebury will travel to play Skidmore College Wednesday October 1st with a record of 6-1.
(09/24/14 10:49pm)
The Middlebury women’s field hockey team experienced its first loss of the season this past Saturday in an extremely close game against the top-ranked Bowdoin Polar Bears that resulted in a 2-1 loss for the fourth-ranked Panthers.
A rematch of last year’s NESCAC championship game, the match featured a pair of national top-five teams scrambling for early-season control of the conference. The play on the field lived up to the match’s billing.
The Panthers were quick to score and take control of the game first half with a goal by senior captain Cat Fowler ’15 just four minutes into the start of the clock. Fowler was assisted by sophomore Bridget Instrum ’16 who dribbled into the midfield inside the 25 yard-line before looking to Fowler for a powerful drive to goal.
Goalie Emily Knapp ’15 made a crucial save 15 minutes into the game in which she left her goal to greet a Bowdoin attacker who had snuck past the defensive line. Knapp denied the shot aiding the Panthers in maintaining their 1-0 lead for the entire first half.
The Panthers were able to dictate the momentum in the first half due in large part to the stellar midfield play of senior duo Fowler and Alyssa DiMaio ’15, who combined for five shots in the first half alone to keep the pressure on Bowdoin. Middlebury held a 5-3 advantage in shots and a 4-2 advantage in penalty corners in the opening period of play.
Moving into the second half, Knapp again made an important save for the Panthers,vdenying a Polar Bear attacker to keep Middlebury in the lead.
While Middlebury dominated and maintained possession for a majority of the time, Bowdoin gained momentum during the last few critical moments of the game. The Polar Bears had a stroke called for them and were able to capitalize on it, sneaking a shot past Knapp into the bottom left corner of the goal to knot the score at one apiece with only two minutes left to play in the game.
Unfortunately for Middlebury, Bowdoin was not done scoring at that point.
With the intensity amplified by the sudden tie in the game’s closing minutes, the Polar Bears capitalized on their momentum by scoring a second goal less than a minute after their first to take the lead.
Just as time was running out, Middlebury had one final opportunity to force overtime, but the Panthers were unable to convert a penalty corner and fell by a final score of 2-1.
Sophomore midfielder Olivia Jurkowitz ’17 summarized her thoughts on the weekend’s matchup.
“Overall Midd had more scoring opportunities but we weren’t able to capitalize on them when needed, meanwhile Bowdoin had less chances but put them to use especially when it mattered most,” she said.
Bowdoin was able to pull the reversal on Middlebury due in large part to their statistical dominance in the second half. While the Panthers were dominant in the opening half, the Polar Bears put five shots on goal after the break to Middlebury’s one.
Now holders of a 4-1 record, Middlebury looks to regain its winning streak this coming Saturday, Sept. 27 as they travel to Waterville, ME for a NESCAC matchup with Colby. The Mules, who are currently 3-3, will try to pull an upset against the heavily favored Panthers.
Despite the loss, expectations remain high for the Panthers, who will look to postseason play as a possible opportunity to get their revenge on Bowdoin.