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(11/16/17 12:13am)
The men’s basketball team’s goals entering the season are clear. First, the Panthers want to secure home-court advantage for the Nescac playoffs by finishing first in the regular season standings. Then, they want to win the Nescac for the third straight season, this time at Pepin Gymnasium. From there, having secured a spot in the NCAA tournament, they have their sights set on Salem, Virginia, and their first Final Four berth since 2011.
Last season, the Panthers had a trip to Salem within their reach, but ultimately fell a bucket short, losing to Williams 79–75 in the NCAA quarterfinals. The bitter taste of losing to a Nescac rival on their home court in one of the biggest games in school history remains in the mouths of the returning Panthers.
“We were a minute, a bucket away last year,” said team captain Jack Daly ’18. “So we know what it takes to get back there, the mentality, the work ethic it will take.”
To achieve these goals, Middlebury must find ways to replace the production of four graduating seniors, including All-American Matt St. Amour ’17 who is third on the program’s all-time scoring list, and four-year starting point guard and All-Nescac selection Jake Brown ’17. The class of 2017 went a combined 89–31 over its four years at Middlebury.
Daly and his fellow captains, Nick Tarantino ’18 and Adisa Majors ’18, make up the senior class charged with leading the effort to replicate and then build upon last year’s success. Daly, a two-year starter who led the Panthers in rebounding and was second in scoring and assisting last year, will take the lead in the backcourt after partnering with Brown and St. Amour for the last two seasons.
“We had three great guards last year, now we have just Jack,” said Tarantino about Daly, the only returning guard who figured into head coach Jeff Brown’s regular rotation last year. “This guy is going to have the ball in his hands, instead of a third of the time, like 95 percent of the time.”
On the other hand, Daly and Tarantino both expect the front court to assume a bigger role since that is where the bulk of Middlebury’s experience returns. Majors (9.6) is Middlebury’s second returning leading scorer, Eric McCord ’19 (7.9) third, Tarantino (6.8) fourth and Matt Folger ’20 (6.5) fifth.
“I expect between Nick, Adisa, Matt and Eric, who were kind of seen as second-tier to the three guards last year, to be able to fill the leadership voids left by Brown and St. Amour on the court,” Daly said. “I expect them to increase production, rebounding, scoring and efficiency. They’re going to be the face of our team this year. So, for them, their consistency is going to be expected, and they’re ready to take on that challenge.”
Unlike last year, when the Panthers were perimeter-oriented, Daly and Tarantino agree their big men will play much bigger roles this season.
“The majority of our returning players, besides Jack, that played significant minutes last year are big men,” said Tarantino. “I think we’ll play a little more inside-out this year, while still playing high-tempo, pushing the basketball in transition.”
What Tarantino refers to, up-tempo basketball, is a given for Middlebury men’s basketball these days. Coach Brown has built his program based on three main tenets: fast tempo, passing and defense, and he has been quite successful doing so, entering his 21st season at the helm with a 336–189 record which is the best in the program’s history.
Even though there will be turnover in personnel, Daly and Tarantino know the Panthers will stick to Brown’s philosophy.
“I think our playing style will be similar in terms of tempo, defense first, passing first,” Tarantino said.
“Coach Brown preaches every day in practice that we’re still going to play up-tempo, score 90 points a game, get 20 assists a game, and lock up on defense,” added Daly. “That’s the way he’s coached for 20 years, and he recruits players that can do that and adjust to that style has been very successful for him over his tenure.”
Several players who were either not on the team last year or played sparingly will need to step up and play more meaningful roles for Brown. The team especially needs players who can shoot the basketball, since the graduating class combined for over 70 percent of the team’s three pointers last season. A playmaker or two will also need to emerge since Jake Brown created so many plays last year with his passing and quickness to the basket.
Tarantino and Daly admitted that it is not possible to replace two great players like St. Amour and Brown individually, so the team must figure out how to do it collectively.
“We can’t expect to replace any of them,” Daly said. “You almost have to look to multiple players to do certain qualities that they brought to the team. So no one person is going to shoot as well as Matt or at the rate he shot at, but someone can hit one more three than he did last year or a freshman can come in and hit a three. No one player will create as well as Jake did, but a couple players can make a couple plays each game. So you really can’t replace great players like that. They go down in history at Middlebury, so it playing with the players you have.”
In the backcourt, Perry DeLorenzo ’20 and Joey Leighton ’20 have an opportunity to fill the shooting void as sophomores after not being given many opportunities in their rookie seasons.
“Perry and Joey have been playing very well in practice,” said Daly. “They’ve been shooting the ball very well. If they can keep that up, they can definitely see some time on the court because they can knock down some shots. They maybe didn’t play as much as they wanted last year, but taking the year to watch the college game, to watch St. Amour and Brown, they can really take something away from that. You definitely see that in practice, where their IQs of the game have definitely jumped from last year. It’s always great to have people on the court who can knock down shots and put points on the board.”
Max Bosco ’21 and Ryan Cahill ’21 could have similar impacts in their first year as DeLorenzo and Leighton, spreading the floor for a Panther team in fairly desperate need of spacing on the offensive end.
“Max has been shooting the lights out in practice,” Daly said. “And Ryan is a very versatile big who has been knocking down some shots and can put the ball on the floor.”
Jack Farrell ’21 profiles as a player with the potential to replace some of Jake Brown’s playmaking from the point guard position. He can handle the ball when Daly is out of the game or pair with Daly in two point guard lineups that coach Brown used so often last season.
“He’s very quick. His quickness is very similar to Jake’s from last year,” Daly said. “He’s an energizer bunny. The kid is up-and-down the court in three seconds, he can play make, is on your hip the entire 94 feet. He can definitely have an impact because he can play make and he can play defense, and those are two things coach looks for in a point guard.”
Will Ingram ’21, a tough-nosed defender, Griffin Kornaker ’21, who is injured right now, and James Finn ’20.5, a walk-on, round out a first-year class that complements each other well by providing a combination of shooting, defense and inside play to support the team’s returning foundation.
Since the Panthers are filling so many new roles entering the season, coach Brown has focused on instilling his basketball values in his team. More so than last year, Brown has to build from the ground up to reach a level where they can compete for Nescac and NCAA championships. He has spent a lot of time preaching an up-tempo, passing offense to his team, as well as using a lot of practice to put half-court offensive in place. Defensively and offensively, he wants to ensure that his team is always communicating, since younger guys are often more timid on the court. Brown and his team recognize how far they are from their lofty goals at this point in the season, and how capable they are of accomplishing them if they commit to improving as a unit.
People outside the program expect big things from Middlebury again this winter as well: D3hoops.com has the Panthers at no. 8 in its national preseason poll.
Still, Middlebury is looking up in the rankings at No. 3 Williams and No. 6 Tufts. As always, the battle for the Nescac championship will be fierce. The Panthers know they can take nothing for granted because everyone is going to be at their best against the two-time defending Nescac champions.
“Being that reigning champion, people always want to take you down,” said Daly. “Going into every game, we expect the best from our opponent, which means we have to bring our A-game every day. Those rankings really don’t mean anything to us because they are based off last year. They aren’t based off our current roster. It’s nice to be recognized, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean anything. We have to come into every game with the same mentality of do whatever it takes to win.”
Tarantino put the rankings in perspective, especially given that it is the preseason rankings.
“It’s only a ranking, and we’re playing for a championship, a Final Four,” added Tarantino. “We’re not playing for the Coaches poll.”
The Panthers will take the court for the first time tomorrow evening at 7 p.m. in Pepin Gym where they host Fitchburg St. in the Middlebury Tournament, the first ever regular season tournament held at Middlebury.
(11/08/17 5:31pm)
On a late August day in the middle of the NBA offseason, the news broke that the Cleveland Cavaliers were trading Kyrie Irving, their second-leading scorer and four-time all-star who requested a trade in July, to the Boston Celtics. Many people around the NBA applauded Cleveland for getting the return that they did after it became public knowledge that Irving had requested the trade. They were praising Koby Altman ’05, who became Cleveland’s general manager the same day the news was reported. That same Altman graduated from Middlebury just over twelve years before rising to one of the most powerful positions in the National Basketball Association.
Altman did not take a typical route to head coach Jeff Brown’s Middlebury men’s basketball roster. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York, a few blocks from where the Barclays Center is now, and was accepted early decision to Middlebury as a part of the third group of Posse scholars at the college in December 2000. Brown heard that Altman was a potential prospect for his team, so he travelled to New York in December shortly after Altman’s acceptance to Middlebury to see him play.
“The recruiting process for Koby was reversed,” Brown said. “He had decided on Middlebury College before I actually I had a chance to watch him play and see where he might fit in. Watching him play I was really confident he had the ability to help our program.”
Altman arrived on campus the following fall in a big class of four other first-years. Brown was entering his fourth season as head coach of the men’s basketball team, and was still trying to build up a program that had only finished over .500 five times since 1980. That season, Altman appeared in 17 out of 25 games, averaging five minutes and one point per game on a team that went 11–14.
He moved into the starting lineup in his sophomore season, starting 13 out of 24 games and upping his scoring average to seven points per game, along with four assists and three rebounds. In his final two seasons, Altman started the majority of games as a point guard for the Panthers.
Brown remembered Altman as a player who filled his role well as a pass-first point guard.
“As a player, Koby was a ball-handler,” Brown said. “He had quickness and a little bit of craftiness to his game. He handled the ball pretty well, was pretty creative going to the basket and finding his teammates. He was a reliable three-point shoot, but never was a big scorer. But he was certainly a great teammate, a hard worker, a player that really understood the game well, and was really a leader on the floor. ”
The team started to make strides during this time as Brown began to mold the program. In Altman’s junior season, the Panthers finished over .500 for the first time in Brown’s sixth year as head coach. To put Brown’s tenure into context, before he took the helm, only two of the 16 coaches in program history had career records over .500.
Altman was there to see the dawn of a new era in Middlebury men’s basketball. In 2008, the Panthers qualified for the NCAA tournament for the first time, and have done so seven times since then, including a run to the Final Four in 2011 when they finished 28–2. They also won four Nescac titles from 2009 to 2017, more than any other team in the conference has in that span. Brown, whose record over 20 years is 336–189 and whose winning percentage is .640 (easily the highest in program history), laid the groundwork for his success, while Altman was at Middlebury. He and his teammates helped Brown to establish the foundation that he built the men’s basketball program on.
While at Middlebury, Altman spoke to Brown a lot about being interested in pursuing a career in professional sports.
“Sports was certainly a passion of his,” Brown said. “He certainly developed some great leadership skills before Middlebury and here at Middlebury.”
Brown saw in Altman many of the important attributes that make for successful coaches and people in professional sports front offices.
“He really was a connector,” Brown said. “He had really strong relationships with all of his teammates, was very engaging, and funny at times. He was really a great leader, with work ethic and communication.
“His personality is so engaging. His teammates really enjoyed speaking with him. He just had one of those personalities that just really kind of captured his teammates.”
When talking about Altman as a person, Brown cracked a smile, as he remembered his former player’s time on his team. Although Altman’s playing career ended after his time under Brown at Middlebury, his leadership skills and engaging personality and his ability to connect people on and off the court, Brown knew, would certainly help him when he left Middlebury.
But after graduating from Middlebury in 2005, Altman went down a different path than a career in professional sports: He took a job at Friedman-Roth Realty, a commercial real estate firm in Manhattan. Back in New York, Altman would take his lunch four blocks away from his office at Xavier High School, where he would spend an hour helping out with the freshman basketball team.
Altman spent three years at Friedman-Roth, then began his basketball in earnest. He left New York to enroll in a master’s program in sports management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. While studying at UMass, Altman also joined the men’s basketball coaching staff at Amherst College, of all places, under legendary head coach David Hixon. His first year there (2007–8), Amherst beat Middlebury in their only matchup. Then in Altman’s second season, the Mammoths won in the regular season, but Brown and the Panthers defeated the Mammoths 77–68 in the Nescac championship game for its first conference title.
In his second year at UMass, Altman got paired with his mentor Sean Ford, the director for men’s programs at USA basketball. Through Ford, Altman served as a manager on the USA Under-19 and Under-17 teams that won gold medals in 2009 and 2010, respectively. In his second year with USA basketball, Altman entered the DI ranks for the first time as a graduate assistant at Southern Illinois in the Missouri Valley Conference. Then he moved back to New York to become an assistant at Columbia, who was looking for a quantitative assistant coach. It paid off for Altman, who still wanted to break into professional sports. At Columbia, he got connected with Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Chris Grant.
In 2012, Cleveland hired Altman as their manager of pro personnel. He was there when the Cavs had the first overall pick in the draft twice, he was there when LeBron James returned to Cleveland, and he was there when they won their first NBA championship in team history. After the championship in 2016, Altman was promoted to assistant general manager under David Griffin. The following season, Cleveland returned to the finals, but lost in five games to the Warriors. Griffin’s contract expired after the season, and he and Cleveland parted ways after not coming to terms on an extension.
Altman stepped in as the head of Cleveland’s front office on an interim basis as the ownership conducted its search. 35 days after Griffin and the Cavs parted ways, and high profile candidates like 2004 NBA Finals MVP Chauncey Billups considered and were considered for the job, Cleveland named Altman its next general manager on Monday, July 24, 2017. At 34 years old, the second-youngest general manager in the NBA, Altman took the helm of the team that had appeared in three consecutive finals won its first championship less than two years ago, but then parted ways with the general manager of the team during those years.
If that were not enough pressure to perform, Altman also entered a situation fraught with internal tension. The same day Altman was hired, it was reported that Irving requested a trade from Cleveland. On top of that, rumors swirled around LeBron all summer, wondering whether he would depart after his contract expires at the end of this season.
Altman certainly entered a difficult position, but that is the nature of professional sports management. To trade one of your best players to your biggest conference rival is a difficult choice, but quite probably necessary because of Irving’s request. With so little leverage, Altman did an admiral job turning Irving into Isaiah Thomas, a two-time all-star and Boston’s leading scorer the last three seasons, Jae Crowder, a versatile forward on offense and defense, Ante Zizic, an intriguing young big man, Brooklyn’s 2018 first round pick that could easily turn into a top-5 selection in next year’s draft, and Miami’s 2020 second round pick.
Considering the many steps Altman took from Middlebury to Cleveland, it is easy to forget Altman graduated from Middlebury 10 years ago. He rose very quickly from college student, to real estate agent, to unpaid graduate assistant, to being employed by the Cleveland Cavaliers, to general manager of the Cavaliers. But Brown remembers what Altman told him and envisioned then that Altman could make a mark on professional sports.
“Koby was able to capitalize on his great leadership skills,” Brown said. “I’m certainly not surprised that he has elevated to the level he is at with the Cavaliers.”
(10/11/17 9:24pm)
The men’s tennis team faced a big challenge last weekend, Friday to Sunday, Oct. 6 to 8, as it competed against exclusively Division I teams in the Farnsworth Invitational at Princeton. The doubles pair of Andre Xiao ’21 and Will de Quant ’18 led the way by reaching the semifinals of the A-doubles flight, while Peter Martin ’19 reached the semifinals of the C-singles flight.
Despite the fact that Middlebury was the only Division III team competing at Princeton, the Panthers were confident in their ability to match-up with most other teams there.
“In reality, there were only a handful of teams (UVA, Columbia, Princeton) at the tournament that would clearly beat us in a team match,” said team captain de Quant. “The majority of teams there had strong players, but I would feel confident about our chances when pitting our lineup against theirs.”
De Quant, Noah Farrell ’19 and Kyle Schlanger ’18 all competed in the A-singles flight.
In the first round, de Quant defeated Drexel’s Hamza Laalej 6–2, 7–5, but lost to eventual champion, Virginia’s Aswin Lizen, in the next round 6–2, 6–2. Lizen is part of the team that has won the past NCAA Division I titles.
“The ‘better’ teams at the tournament were UVA, Princeton and Columbia,” said de Quant. “UVA has won two consecutive NCAA Division I titles, so seeing the talent they bring in and how they compete in matches is great for us moving forward. As a team, we know that our level of commitment and our level of training is on par with most DI programs, and seeing these DI teams this weekend only solidified my confidence in our program and the quality that our team has on and off court.”
Farrell lost his first round matchup to Luka Sucevic from St. John’s 7–5, 7–6 (7–2). After a bye in the first round, Schlanger lost a hard-fought match to Monmouth’s Alberto Giuffrida 7–6 (11–9), 1–6, 10–4.
Schlanger and de Quant showed their mettle in the consolation bracket, where Schlanger won twice and de Quant won three matches to finish 4–1 on the weekend in singles.
In the A-doubles flight, de Quant and Xiao advanced to the semifinals by winning their first match over Marist’s Chris Gladden and Carlos Moreno 8–3. There, the Panther pair lost to Drexel’s Bernard Tefel and Sinan Orhon 8–6.
“The top end of Division III Tennis is now very strong and deep, which I think showed when our players competed against some of the top players from the DI schools at this tournament,” said de Quant.
Schlanger and Timo van der Geest ’18, the other Middlebury pair in the A-doubles flight, won their first match as well, defeating Lehigh’s George Cooper and Bryant Born 8–3, but fell to eventual champions Rian Pandole and Michal Rolski from Columbia 8–5. Unlike Cuba and de Quant, Schlanger and van der Geest did not get a bye, so they only made it to the quarterfinals.
Van der Geest and Alex Vanezis ’20 and Andre Xiao ’21 represented Middlebury in the B-singles flight. All three Panthers lost their first matches, but both van der Geest and Xiao were able to win twice in the consolation bracket.
In B-doubles, the pairs of Farrell and Martin and Vanezis and Nate Eazor ’21 lost in the first round. Vanezis and Eazor rebounded in the consolation bracket by winning twice.
Martin made his run into the semifinals of C-singles by beating Lehigh’s Chris Auteri 2–6, 6–2, 10–3, Drexel’s Xandy Hammitt 5–7, 7–6 (7 – 3), 10–8, and Columbia’s Taiya Hamanaka 7–6 (7–4), 6–2. He lost to Princeton’s Kabir Sarita 6–2, 6–1 in the final four of the 32-man field.
“Peter Martin stood out this weekend, as he performed very well in his singles bracket,” de Quant said. “He has historically focused on doubles, but he showed everyone his quality in singles as well this weekend, which is great for him and great for the team moving forward.”
Adam Guo ’21 also had a successful weekend, winning twice in the D-singles flight and once in the C-doubles flight paired with Thorne Gregory ’21. They beat a UVA pair 87.
“The mentality for the weekend was focused on getting matches under our belt, which was a success considering all 13 guys was able to play multiple matches each day,” de Quant said. “This is what the fall season is all about.
“We had confidence going in that we have the level to play and beat players from these DI programs, which showed throughout the weekend,” de Quant said. “Our goal was to learn more about where we stand as individuals and as a team, and we did just that.”
After the challenges the Panthers faced these last several weeks, the team should be ready to go for this weekend’s trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts, for the MIT Invitational Friday to Sunday, Oct. 13 to 15.
(10/04/17 11:26pm)
The men’s and women’s tennis teams competed in the biggest tournament of the fall season, the ITA Regional Championships on Friday to Sunday, Sept. 29 to Oct. 1.
The men’s team hosted the tournament, and, for the first time in three years, a Middlebury player did not win the regional title. In the women’s tournament at Williams, Catherine Blazye ’20 led the Panthers by reaching the quarterfinal round in both singles and doubles, as she continued her strong start to the fall season.
Lubo Cuba ’19 and the pair of Cuba and Will de Quant ’18 entered the tournament as the one-seed in the singles and doubles draws, respectively, but neither emerged as winner.
Cuba did reach the semifinals before falling to Wesleyan first-year Adam Finkelman 6–2, 6–2. In the first day of competition on Friday, he defeated Amherst’s Kevin Ma from Amherst 6–3, 7–6 (4), and Bowdoin’s Justin Patel 6–4, 7–5. Then on Saturday, Cuba held off Sachin Raghavan from Williams 6–3, 6–7 (6), 6–3, before handling Luke Tercek from Bowdoin 6–2, 6–0 to reach the semifinals. Sunday morning, Cuba fell to Finkleman, ending his hopes of repeating as regional champion.
De Quant and Noah Farrell ’19 advanced to the quarterfinals in the singles. De Quant did so by defeating Bowdoin’s Larry Zhao 7 – 6 (5), 4–6, 6–3 and Wesleyan’s Cam Daniels 3–6, 6–2, 7–5 on Friday, then MIT’s Sean Ko 7–6 (5), 6–3 on Saturday. Later in the day, de Quant fell to Finkelman too, 6–2, 6–2.
Farrell won against Brandon Howard from Nichols 6–0, 6–0, Anupreeth Coramutla from Brandeis 6–3, 6–1, and Ananth Raghavan 7–5, 6–1. In the quarterfinals, eventual champion Brian Grodecki from Williams beat Farrell 6–3, 6–3.
Kyle Schlanger ’18 and Timo van der Geest ’18 also competed in singles. Schlanger reached the round of 16 before losing to second-seeded Steven Chen from Wesleyan, while van der Geest bowed out in the second round.
In doubles, Cuba and de Quant were upset in their first match of the tournament, when Nathan Kaplan and Sean Wei defeated them 8–3.
The pair of Farrell and Peter Martin ’19, after losing its first match in the Middlebury Invitational two weekends ago, made a run to the finals of the doubles bracket. Bowdoin’s Tercek and Grant Urken took down Farrell and Martin 6–4, 6–3 in the finals, denying them the regional championship and a spot in the ITA doubles national championships.
Van der Geest and Schlanger, Middlebury’s other doubles pair, won its first two matches but then lost in the quarterfinals to Williams’ Grodecki and Alex Taylor.
Blazye made the longest run on the women’s side, advancing to the quarterfinal round. She won her two matches on Friday over Katherine Wiley from Tufts 6–4, 6–3 and Hannah Sweeney from Bates 6–4, 7–5. On Saturday, she made her way to the quarterfinals by dismissing Chloe Henderson 6–0, 6–1, but lost to sixth-seeded Leah Bush from Williams 6–7 (5), 7–6 (3), 11–9 there.
Heather Boehm ’20 and Skylar Schossberger ’20 also played their way into the round of 16.
Boehm came from behind to defeat Julia Cancio from Williams 4–6, 6–1, 7–5 and held off Polina Kiseleva from Wesleyan 6–4, 4–6, 6–0 on Friday. The following morning, fifth-seeded Mina Karamercan from Tufts beat Boehm 6–4, 6–1.
Schossberger earned the opportunity to play on Saturday by defeating Trinity’s Vanja Babunski 6–1, 4–6, 6–0 and Tufts’ Margot Shea 6–4, 6–0. On Saturday morning, she fell to Williams’ Mia Gancayco 6–2, 6–2.
Katherine Hughes ’20 and Maddi Stow ’20 added first round victories in singles, but bowed out the next round.
In doubles, the fifth-seeded pair of Blazye and Stow ran into the quarterfinals. They lost a close 8–6 match there to Williams’ Henderson and Rachel Cross. The third-seeded pair of Hughes and Schossberger won their first match 8–3, but also lost 8–6, this time in the round of 16 to Amherst’s Avery Wagman and Anya Ivenitsky.
The team did so well this weekend,” said Blazye. “We had 6 players gain places in the main draw which is unbelievable. The results showed how our hard work is paying off already, and this is just the beginning. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the year holds.”
The women return to action when they play in the Harvard Scramble on Friday to Sunday, Oct. 13 to 15.
The men will travel to Princeton this weekend to participate in the Farnsworth Invitational on Friday to Sunday, Oct. 6 to 8.
(10/04/17 11:23pm)
Andrew Plotch ’18 stopped at The Campus’ table at the club fair two weeks ago, but he was not there to sign up. Instead, brimming with excitement, he handed this reporter a poster for the Quidditch tournament coming up on campus and asked for coverage.
This Saturday, Oct. 7, the Middlebury Quidditch team will be hosting the Middlebury Classic Quidditch Tournament on Battell Beach from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., competing against teams from Skidmore, UVM, RPI, Champlain College and a team featuring players from a combination of schools. And, for the first time in years, there is palpable excitement surrounding Quidditch at Middlebury, where the sport was founded in 2005.
“This past year, we decided we wanted to redefine Middlebury Quidditch,” Plotch said. “Last fall, and again in the spring, we voted as a team to rejoin the U.S. Quidditch Association. We’ll be travelling to New York and Boston a few times this fall to play in tournaments and regional competitions. Our team has gone from scrimmaging only on Sundays just a year ago to adding three weekday practices that focus on skills and strategy.”
In addition to the inter-school competition, one team from each commons will compete against each other for the Commons Cup.
This was actually how competitive Quidditch began at Middlebury, as the winner of the Commons Cup went on to compete in the World Cup. Middlebury hosted each of the first three World Cups on Battell Beach, including the largest event in the history of the sport that 21 teams and 2,000 people attended.
Middlebury dominated the Quidditch world in its early existence, winning its fifth consecutive World Cup in 2013, but following that year, the team stopped competing in the U.S. Quidditch Association and the International Quidditch Association. Since then, it has competed unofficially and hosted small tournaments the last two years — until this year.
“At the beginning of every year, clubs are infused with new energy, but this year, Quidditch has an extra special feeling,” said Plotch. “Everyone on the team is excited to take our game to the next level in U.S. Quidditch Association and we are bringing back old Middlebury traditions with this year’s tournament. First-years and seniors alike are working hard, both playing on the pitch and planning with non-profits, to make this a redefining moment for Middlebury Quidditch. In the end, we all agree on one thing: Quidditch is back.”
As the teams battle it out on the Battell Beach pitch, there will be various attractions for the spectators and players alike, if they are not too entranced in the games themselves.
“This year, we are bringing back the magic,” added Plotch. “Quidditch is not just about the game, it’s about the experience, so we’re partnering with organizations to make it magical. The American Chemical Society will be putting on potion demonstrations, MiddAcro will be doing acrobatics, and Addison County Readers is partnering with Page One Literacy to have a Harry Potter read-aloud booth. We also worked with MCAB to bring in bands who will be performing in the afternoon: Shy Shape, The Giant Peach, 10-Inch Personal Pizza and Aiden O’Brien. Of course, food is just as vital — food trucks and vendors are coming to feed everyone.”
Plotch and the Quidditch team originally wanted to return to bring Middlebury back to prominence in the Quidditch community and saw hosting their own large-scale tournament to be a good place to start. They quickly realized the tournament had much larger implications than simply being an opportunity for this small group of the Middlebury community.
“When I started reaching out to local schools, libraries and businesses did I realize how important the Quidditch tournament used to be for the whole community,” Plotch said. “I’ve been calling schools from Colchester to Rutland and everyone is excited. At the end of year, when we talked about our goals for Quidditch we discussed about making it important to the student body and having a competitive team. Now, I understand that we can reinvigorate an energy all over Addison County, that’s my new goal.”
Considering the frenzied look in Plotch’s eyes at the activities fair, over two weeks before the tournament itself, who knows what the atmosphere will be like on Saturday.
(09/28/17 3:30am)
The men’s tennis team demonstrated its dominance at the top of the lineup as well as its impressive depth by taking three of the six flights at its own invitational on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 23 and 24. In its first tournament of the fall season, Middlebury hosted Bates, Hamilton, Tufts, Brandeis, RPI and Skidmore in a tune-up for the ITA Regional Championships coming up this weekend.
“Because the Midd Invite is always our first tournament, we know it will be hard to play our best right off the bat,” said team captain Timo van der Geest ’18. “We know we always have a good shot at winning a couple of flights but it is mainly about getting in some good competition and learn more about where your game is at the moment.”
In the A-singles flight, Lubo Cuba ’19 was able to get his feet under himself rather quickly and continue his dominance from last season, defeating Ben Rosen of Bates 6–3, 4–6, 10–8 in the championship match after winning three matches to get there. Cuba extended his winning streak to nine matches, dating back to the beginning of the NCAA singles tournament last spring when he won five straight matches en route to the championship.
Along with Cuba, Will de Quant ’18 and Noah Farrell ’18 advanced to the semifinals, where de Quant fell to his teammate Cuba 6–2, 6–7 (5–7), 10–5, and Farrell fell to Rosen 6–1, 6–4.
These three, along with Kyle Schlanger ’18 who also won his first match in the A flight before falling in the next round, proved that the top of Middlebury’s singles lineup has the potential to be devastating this year.
The B-singles flight featured an all-Middlebury final between Timo van der Geest ’18 and Alex Vanezis ’20. Vanezis took it to van der Geest in the first set 6–0, but van der Geest showed some grit in the 80-degree weather by coming from behind to take the second set and the superbreaker to win the championship 0–6, 6–2, 11–9. The Panthers also had three semifinalists in this flight because Andre Xiao ’21 won the first two matches of career, before falling to van der Geest on Sunday morning 6–4, 6–2.
“Singles was fun seeing three out of the four semifinalists in my flight being Midd guys, resulting in me playing a teammate both in the semis and the final,” van der Geest said.
The Panthers’ success in the B-flight pointed to the depth they have throughout their team, considering the three Panther semifinalists were their fifth, sixth and seventh players in the lineup.
In other singles action, Weston Brach ’20 won his first match in the C-singles flight before falling in the quarterfinals, while Peter Martin ’19 won his first match in the D flight before doing the same in the quarterfinals.
Defending NCAA doubles national champions Cuba and de Quant were denied in the A-doubles flight by their fellow Panther pair of van der Geest and Kyle Schlanger ’18. Van der Geest and Schlanger knocked off their national championship teammates in the semifinals 8–6, and then captured the championship by defeating David Aizenberg and Anupreeth Coramutla 8–6 in the final. Van der Geest completed a perfect 8–0 weekend for the second straight year at the Middlebury Invitational, although this year he won the A-doubles flight and defeated the defending national champions with Schlanger.
“It was really exciting for me to win both my singles and doubles flight,” van der Geest said. “Kyle and I competed very well this weekend. In both our matches on Sunday there was a point where we weren’t playing very well but we managed to find ways to swing the matches.”
In the B-flight, the first-year pair of Xiao and Adam Guo ’21 reached the semifinals along with the Vanezis and Nate Eazor ’21 pairing, where they fell.
With one tournament under their belt in the fall season, the Panthers now turn to the ITA Regional Championships which they will host from Friday through Sunday, Sept. 29 to Oct. 1. Middlebury boasts the past two champions, Farrell who won two years ago and Cuba last year.
“I think everyone learned a lot on a personal level about where they are regarding their game at the moment,” van der Geest said, as he looks forward to this weekend. “We are hosting the biggest tournament of the fall this weekend, so we will use the information from the matches we played last weekend to try to prepare as best we can for the ITA.”
As van der Geest acknowledges, the fall season is an opportunity for the Panthers to face some good competition, grow as players and come together as a team. The team’s bigger goals lie ahead in the spring, when they will compete for the Nescac and NCAA team championships.
(09/21/17 12:27am)
In Nescac and NCAA women’s tennis, the road runs through Williamstown, Massachusetts. The Ephs have won five of the last seven Nescac championships and eight of the last 10 national championships. The Middlebury women’s tennis team traveled to Williamstown to compete against Wellesley, Skidmore and Williams in the annual Lindsay Morehouse Invitational on Sept. 15 to 17.
Williams was Middlebury’s kryptonite last season, defeating the Panthers in the Nescac and NCAA championships en route to winning both. And once again, the Ephs proved to be Middlebury’s toughest competition, as the Panthers only losses came at the rackets of the Ephs in the round robin tournament where no team was crowned winner at the end of the weekend.
On Friday, the Middlebury doubles pairs of Catherine Blazye ’20 and Maddi Stow ’20 and Katherine Hughes ’20 and Skylar Schossberger ’20 took down two Williams pairs. Blazye and Stow defeated Juli Raventos, Williams’ top player last season, and Sasha Cayward 8–6, while Hughes and Schossberger beat Julia Cancio and Emily Zheng, Williams’ No. 3 doubles pair last season, 8–4.
Hughes and Schossberger were Middlebury’s top doubles pair last season, going 10–4 in that spot but losing to a Williams pair all three times they played.
Singles competition started on Saturday, and the Panthers won all twelve singles matches that they played against Wellesley and Skidmore. Hughes, Schossberger, Molly Paradies ’19 and Emily Bian ’21 each won twice, while Blazye, Stow, Heather Boehm ’20 and Ann Martin Skelly ’21 each got one win.
The battle with Williams in doubles continued on Saturday, but the Ephs got the best of the Panthers the second time around, taking three of four matches. The first-year pair of Bian and Skelly earned the only win for the Panthers with an 8–5 victory.
Doubles competition proved easier on Sunday as the Panthers swept Skidmore in four matches.
Middlebury matched up with Williams in singles for the first time on Sunday. Williams won four of the six matches, but once again it was a battle as four of the six matches also went into third-set superbreakers. Blazye defeated Raventos, a three-time first team all-Nescac honoree, after losing the first set, 5–7, 6–3, 11–9. Stow added the other victory by knocking off Cancio, whom she lost to twice last season, 6–4, 4–6, 10–7.
Middlebury returns to Williams for the ITA Regional Championships on Sept. 29 to Oct. 1.
(03/23/16 10:45pm)
The Middlebury and Wesleyan women’s tennis teams may have only been separated by one spot in the ITA national rankings when they met in the Nelson Recreational Center on Saturday, March 19, but no. 7 Middlebury dominated no. 8 Wesleyan on the courts 7-2 to move to 3-0 in the NESCAC and overall.
Lauren Amos ’16 and Alexandra Fields ’17 won the first match of the day when they defeated Helen Klass-Warch and Dasha Dubinsky 8-4 in third doubles. Wesleyan’s doubles pairing of Eudice Chong, the top-ranked singles player in the nation, and Aashli Budhiraja tied the match at one by beating Ria Gerger ’16 and Kaysee Orozco ’17 8-4 in the first slot.
In the final doubles match, Lily Bondy ’17 and Sadie Shackelford ’16 prevailed over Victoria Yu and Nicole McCann 9-7.
First-ranked Chong won the first singles match 7-5, 6-2 over Gerger to tie the match at 2, but the Cardinals did not win after that.
Christina Puccinelli ’19 overcame Budhiraja 6-3, 7-5 in the fourth slot to put Middlebury ahead for good. Fields triumphed over Yu, who is ranked ninth nationally, in three sets 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the second slot.
“I was abroad in the fall so winning such a big match in the beginning of the season has been a huge confidence boost for me,” Fields said. “Although we both played great tennis, I think that I won the match because I wanted to win more than she did.”
In the third slot, Bondy came back after the surrendering the first set to defeat Klass-Warch 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. Molly Paradies ’19 and Amos overwhelmed their opponents in the fifth and sixth slots, winning 6-3, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-4, respectively.
The Panthers will return to the court on Friday, March 25, when the travel to play no. 28 Babson, before embarking on their spring break trip to California. Out west, the Panthers will play four times in five days, including matches against no. 3 Pomona-Pitzer and no. 5 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.
The men’s tennis team, ranked third nationally, came from behind to defeat no. 9 Wesleyan in the Nelson Recreational Center on Saturday, March 19 and improve its record to 3-0 in the NESCAC and overall this spring. With their team down 4-3, Hamid Derbani ’17 and Timo van der Geest ’18 won the last two matches to secure a 5-4 victory for the Panthers.
The Panthers jumped ahead in doubles when Noah Farrell ’18 and Ari Smolyar ’16 defeated Zachary Brint and Greg Lyon 8-5 in first singles. However, Farrell and Smolyar did not face Wesleyan’s top two singles players, Steven Chen and Michael Liu. Chen and Liu narrowly beat Palmer Campbell ’16 and Derbani 8-6 in the second slot. Joachim Sampson and Sam Rudovsky also won 8-6, defeating van der Geest and William de Quant ’18, and the Cardinals led the match 2-1 entering singles play.
Campbell tied the match at 2 by making quick work of Tiago Eusebio 6-1, 6-2 in third singles. Farrell put Middlebury ahead 3-2 with a straight set victory of his own (6-4, 6-1) over Liu. The top-ranked singles player in the country had some trouble with Liu in first singles, who played with him early on, but took the match over at the end of the first set. Farrell played better as the match went on and wore Liu down, who grew frustrated with Farrell’s doggedness and ability to get to and return almost everything.
Samson answered right back for the Cardinals, handling de Quant 6-0, 7-5 in the fifth slot, and Chen, ranked no. 14 nationally but playing in the second slot, beat Smolyar after losing the first set 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. Smolyar was animated all match, at one point grasping at his face in anguish, as he struggled with his serve.
With his team’s back against the wall, Derbani overpowered Jake Roberts 6-2, 6-2 in the fourth slot, leaving the fate of the match in van der Geest’s hands. Van der Geest welcomed the challenge, overcoming a couple questionable calls by his opponent Dhruv Yadav to win the decisive match 6-2, 7-5 and seal the match for Middlebury. Van der Geest took a couple of games to get his feet under him in the first set, but once he did, he started to assert himself with consistent ground strokes and several impressive winners. Yadav regrouped in the second set, but van der Geest promptly denied any chance of a comeback and won the second set and the match.
“It was very exciting that I was able to clinch the match,” van der Geest said. “I was obviously nervous but felt like I dealt with it well. I learned that I need to improve moving up into the court so I will work on that this week.”
The Panthers will take the courts next in California, where they will play six matches in eight days over spring break. They will face multiple tests out west when they play no. 2 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, who beat them in the national championship last year, no. 8 Pomona-Pitzer and multiple Division I and II opponents.
(03/17/16 2:50am)
By some miracle, the men’s and women’s tennis teams played outdoors on the first weekend of the spring season, a rarity in Vermont, and they dominated. Both teams shut out Bates and Hamilton 9-0 on Saturday, March 12, to move to 2-0 in the NESCAC and overall. Nine different players for the men’s side earned at least one victory, while all eight healthy members of the women’s team won on Saturday, March 12.
The men’s team, which is ranked third in the nation, opened their season in the Duke Nelson Recreation Center against no. 22 Bates on Saturday morning. In doubles, the pairs of Noah Farrell ’18 and Ari Smolyar ’16, Palmer Campbell ’16 and Hamid Derbani ’18 and Will de Quant ’18 and Timo van der Geest ’18 won 8-5, 8-6 and 8-2 in first, second and third doubles, respectively.
In the only match where a Panther lost a set all day, no. 1 in the nation Noah Farrell ’18, competing in his first match since winning the singles national title in the fall, defeated no. 25 Josh Rosen 6-0, 3-6, 13-11. In other singles action, no. 24 Smolyar beat Chris Ellis 6-0, 6-4 in the second spot and Campbell, de Quant, Derbani and van der Geest also won in straight sets in third through sixth singles, in that order.
Later that morning, the Panthers moved outside to the Proctor tennis courts to face Hamilton, who had not won a match in the NESCAC since 2013. The same three doubles’ pairs defeated the Continentals. Farrell and Smolyar shut out their opponent 8-0 in first doubles, while Campbell and Derbani won 8-5 in the second slot and de Quant and van der Geest won 8-2 the third slot.
Head Coach Bob Hansen showcased his team’s depth, choosing to rest Farrell, Smolyar and de Quant and start Kyle Schlanger ’18, Peter Martin ’19 and Cole Sutton ’19. Schlanger, Martin and Sutton defeated their opponents, while Campbell, Derbani and van der Geest also took care of business in straight sets in the fourth, fifth and sixth spots respectively to cap off a perfect day and start to the season for Hansen’s squad.
“The team is gaining momemtum as we head out west for spring break,” said Campbell. “We look to avenge last year’s loss in the NCAA final and knock off defending national champion Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.”
The sixth-ranked women’s team played both of its matches outdoors on Saturday, winning all 18 of its matches without losing a set. In doubles play of its first match against Hamilton, Ria Gerger ’16 and Kaysee Orozco ’17 won 8-3 in first doubles, Lily Bondy ’17 and Sadie Shackelford ’16 shut out their opponent 8-0 in the second slot and Molly Paradies ’19 and Christina Puccinelli ’19 conceded only one game in the third slot, winning their first collegiate doubles match together 8-1.
Singles play was even more one-sided as the Panthers outscored the Continentals 72-3 in total games won. Gerger did not concede a game at the top of the ladder, and Paradies and Shackelford followed suit, both winning 6-0, 6-0. On the second, third and fourth rungs of the ladder, Alexandra Fields ’17 (6-1, 6-0), Bondy (6-0, 6-1) and Puccinelli (6-1, 6-0) all only lost one game.
Middlebury handled Bates in a similar fashion later in the day. The Panthers only lost two games in all of their doubles matches combined, as the same pairings from the morning matches versus Hamilton brought in more victories. Bondy and Shackelford swept their opponent for the second straight match in the second slot, while Gerger and Orozsco won 8-1 in the first slot and Paradies and Puccinnelli did the same in the third slot.
All six Panthers won in straight sets in singles: Gerger (6-2, 6-0), Fields (6-3, 6-1), Puccinelli (6-3, 6-1), Paradies (6-1, 6-2), Lauren Amos ’16 (6-2, 6-3) and Orozco (6-0, 6-1).
“As a team, we have been putting in more hours than we ever have,” Gerger said. “If anything, our most noteworthy performance has been what has happened before match-day.
Both teams will host Wesleyan this upcoming Saturday, March 19. The Cardinals’ men’sc team is ranked 23rd nationally, while their women’s team is ranked 17th.
(03/10/16 3:54am)
They always say it’s hard to beat a team three times in one season. The men’s hockey team discovered that on Saturday. After defeating defending NESCAC champion Amherst twice in the regular season, the fourth-seeded Panthers could not do so for a third time, falling to fifth-seeded Amherst 4-2 in the NESCAC semifinals on Saturday, March 5 at Trinity.
Amherst advanced to the NESCAC championship for the third straight season, where they fell to Trinity 5-1. The Panthers finished their first season of Head Coach Neil Sinclair’s second stint with an 8-11-7 record, the third straight year they have finished with a losing record following 24 consecutive winning seasons. However, this year’s Panthers advanced to championship weekend for the first time in three years after failing to make it out of the quarterfinals in 2014 and 2015.
Middlebury thoroughly handled Amherst both times in the regular season, getting ahead early and allowing one goal in two games. On Dec. 12, the Panthers traveled to Amherst and shut out the hosts 2-0. When Amherst visited Middlebury on Feb. 21 in the second-to-last game of the regular season, Middlebury won by two goals, 3-1, in the seniors’ last game in Kenyon Arena.
All of that meant nothing when Saturday arrived, and Amherst jumped out to a 1-0 lead 8:48 into the contest when John Festa beat a Middlebury defender and sent a wrist shot into the bottom corner for his first career goal.
“We had our chances,” Sinclair said. “We had chances and weren’t able to capitalize on them early on in the game, so we were fighting from behind for the rest of the game.”
At the 4:54 mark of the second period Middlebury went on the power play and threatened to score numerous times. Amherst netminder Connor Girard saved every shot that came his way as his team successfully killed the Middlebury power play. The Panthers struggled on the power play all season, scoring only nine times, fewest in the conference.
On an Amherst power play later that period, Topher Flanagan found Thomas Lindstrom wide open in front of Middlebury netminder Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16. Lindstrom received the pass and beat Moorfield-Yee to the top right corner, giving Amherst a 2-0 lead.
Still up 2-0 entering the third period, Amherst’s Patrick Arena added one more to his team’s lead early on, batting the puck out of midair and into the back of the net. With only 15:38 seconds remaining in the game, the Panthers faced a 3-0 deficit and the end of the season loomed large. Seven and a half minutes later Mike Najjar ’17 got Middlebury on the board, beating Girard from long-range to bring Middlebury within two goals with 8:06 remaining.
Time worked against Middlebury from that point on and the Panthers pulled Moorfield-Yee with 3:35 left in the game. 24 seconds later, Festa scored his second goal of the game and the first of his career from beyond the red line.
Max Greenwald ’16 ended his career with pride as he scored the Panthers’ second goal of the day with 52 seconds remaining when, he got to his own rebound and pushed the puck home for his fourth goal of the season. But 52 seconds later the horn sounded on the Panthers’ season and the careers of nine seniors: Greenwald, Moorfield-Yee, Evan Neugold ’16, Terrance Goguen ’16, Ron Fishman ’16 (who was named second team all-NESCAC for leading all defensemen in points – Jake Charles ’16, Zach Haggerty ’16, Brendan McGovern ’16 and Paul Falvey ’16. Fishman made the All-NESCAC second team, scoring five goals and assisting on 12 more this season, which led all defenseman in points in NESCAC play.
“The senior class brought a lot to the table for the last four years and they’ve been a huge part of the Middlebury hockey program,” Sinclair said. “I’m very grateful in my first year back here they were welcoming and made the transition go really smoothly, and am proud of what they were able to accomplish on the ice. It’s going to be really sad to see them go.”
(03/02/16 6:00pm)
The third time was the charm for the Middlebury men’s hockey team against Hamilton.
After tying the Continentals in their first two matchups of the season, Jake Charles ’16 scored the winning goal 7:21 into overtime, and the Panthers defeated Hamilton 2-1 in Clinton, N.Y. on Saturday, Feb. 27, to advance to the NESCAC semifinals. They will play Amherst on Saturday, March 5, and the winner of that matchup will play for the NESCAC championship the following afternoon.
Only one point separated the Continentals from the Panthers in the NESCAC standings when they entered the game on Saturday. In the teams’ first matchup, Middlebury went ahead 2-0, before Hamilton scored three unanswered goals in the second period and Travis Stephens ’18 made it a 3-3 tie in the final twenty minutes of play. Then, one week before last weekend’s face off in the playoffs, the teams tied 1-1, setting up the quarterfinals as the rubber match between the fourth-seeded Continentals and fifth-seeded Panthers.
2:50 into the game, the Panthers scored first on Evan Neugold’s ’16 sixth goal of the year. Charles passed to Neugold in the neutral zone, and Neugold carried the puck down the right side. Neugold made one defender miss then slung a wrist shot past Hamilton netminder Evan Buitenhuis for a 1-0 Middlebury lead.
The Panthers took that one goal lead into the first break, but Robbie Murden tied the game just 39 seconds into the second period with his conference-leading 17th goal of the season. Middlebury attempted to clear the puck but was unsuccessful, and the puck found its way to the NESCAC leading scorer, who handled the rest, beating Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16 to the short side.
The Continentals had one more golden opportunity in the period on a two-on-one advantage. They drew Moorfield-Yee out of the net but shot just over the crossbar, and the game stayed tied entering the final 20 minutes of regulation.
Hamilton outshot the Panthers 17-5 in the third period, but could not beat Moorfield-Yee. Early on, Moorfield-Yee went to the ice to make a save and the puck rebounded precariously into the crease, but a Middlebury defender arrived to clear the puck away from the empty net. Without a decisive goal, the game went to overtime.
“As a goalie, your job description is to stop pucks,” Moorfield-Yee said. “To be able to do that over the past couple of weeks has been a rewarding experience.”
Seven minutes into overtime, a Hamilton player swung the puck around the boards behind his own net, trying to clear it, but it bounced to Charles in the center of the ice. Charles passed to Vincent Gisonti ’18 at the right post whose shot was stopped but rebounded out to the right. Charles was there to slide home the game-winning goal after 67:21 of action.
The Panthers got their second and most important overtime win in eleven tries, even though the Continentals outshot them by a margin of 41-25.
“Liam gave us all the confidence in the world,” Neugold said. “He absolutely stood on his head and made crucial saves when we made mistakes during the game. He played his biggest game in our most important game of the season.”
Moorfield-Yee’s 40-save effort between the posts garnered him NESCAC Player of the Week honors.
Middlebury now turns to sixth-seeded Amherst on Saturday, March 5, whom they will face at Trinity, the highest remaining seed in the bracket. The Panthers defeated Amherst both times during the regular season, by scores of 2-0 and 3-1. However, the Lord Jeffs were able to record six goals in the third period to come from behind and upset third-seeded Bowdoin and will be riding that momentum into this upcoming weekend.
In the other semifinal matchup, second-seeded Trinity will face eighth-seeded Tufts, who knocked off top-seeded Williams on Saturday. The winners of both games will compete for the NESCAC championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament the following day.
“It’s going to take the same level of commitment and buy-in that we played with against Hamilton,” Neugold said. “If every guy on the team is playing his heart out, playing the way we played Saturday and buying into the team system, then that’s all you can ask for.”
With two wins this weekend, the team would win its first NESCAC championship in six years and eighth in team history. Middlebury last reached the championship game in 2012, the season before this year’s group of nine seniors arrived on campus.
(02/25/16 2:50am)
The Middlebury men’s hockey team did not lose this weekend at Kenyon Arena, tying Hamilton 1-1 and defeating Amherst 3-1 on Feb. 20-21. Despite the tie result, the team finished one point below Hamilton and fifth in the NESCAC standings, one spot away from hosting a NESCAC playoff game. The Panthers will travel to Clinton, N.Y. to play fourth-seeded Hamilton in the NESCAC quarterfinals on Saturday, Feb. 27.
Entering the game against fourth-ranked Hamilton on Saturday, Feb. 20, Middlebury needed to defeat the Continentals to have a chance to secure the fourth seed and a home playoff game. Hamilton opened the scoring fewer than five minutes into the first period when Conor Lamberti shot from the left point and Brandon Willett deflected the puck past Middlebury netminder Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16.
Two minutes later, Ron Fishman ’16 tied the game on a wrist shot from the right side. Travis Stephens ’18 passed to Fishman who wristed the puck through traffic and into the back of the net to tie the game at one.
Neither team scored in the second period, but Hamilton generated more shots by a margin of 14-4 and had one shot denied by the post when Rory Gagnon hit iron three quarters of the way through the period.
Moorfield-Yee made several game-saving stops in the third period as both teams fought for the much-needed win and things began to get chippy — the teams combined for 12 penalties in the contest.
“Right now, every game is a playoff game and we are fighting for a home playoff position,” Captain Evan Neugold ’16 said.
Over four minutes had elapsed in the final period as action picked up. Lamberti set Kenny Matheson free on a long pass down the middle of the ice. Matheson found himself alone with only Moorfield-Yee to beat, but Moorfield-Yee denied Matheson’s shot and the rebound attempt. The Panthers counter-attacked and Zach Haggerty ’16 ripped a shot from the open left side, but it went just wide. In the last minute of regulation, Hamilton had a two-on-one opportunity, but Scott Vasquez could not convert and the two teams headed to overtime.
Midway through the overtime period, Mark McLellan ’18 beat a Continental defender to a puck in the neutral zone and skated in all alone. He went right and shot, but Hamilton netminder Evan Buitenhuis made a glove save to continue the game. In the dying seconds, Moorfield-Yee gloved Robbie Murden’s, the NESCAC overall scoring leader, shot from the left to force one more face-off with one second remaining. The Hamilton player taking the faceoff sent the puck in the direction of Moorfield-Yee, who made a kick save, his 38th of the day, to end the game in a 1-1 tie. The tie was Middlebury’s seventh of the season, a team record, and their second with Hamilton, who they tied 3-3 in the season’s first matchup.
The tie with Hamilton meant Middlebury could not move into fourth in the NESCAC, but the game against Amherst the next day still had meaning for the Panthers. With a win, they would move past the Lord Jeffs into fifth in the conference, and it was senior day for the team.
“[This weekend] is even more special considering it’s senior night for nine of us,” Neugold said.
This time, the Panthers scored first when Max Greenwald ’16 passed the puck cross-ice to Haggerty, who redirected it for a goal, his team-leading eighth of the season. They added to the lead early in the second period with two goals in one minute. At the 3:41 mark, Fishman scored his second goal in as many games from a difficult angle off assists from Paul Falvey ’16 and Stephens. Exactly one minute later, Spencer Cage ’19 set up Jake Charles ’16 for his sixth goal of the season.
Down by a score of 3-0, Amherst went on the power play twice in the second period and converted on their second man-advantage with a shot from the point.
“Three out of the last four games we have given up two leads, so our focus is on becoming a team that can close when we have the lead,” Neugold said before this weekend.
Middlebury accomplished that on Saturday and secured a 3-1 win to finish fifth in the NESCAC, two places higher than last year.
“Playing a full 60 minutes is something that we’ve been emphasizing all year long, and it was great to see it happen on Sunday against Amherst,” said Fishman, one of five seniors to contribute to the scoring effort.
Moorfield-Yee saved 21 shots in the contest and earned his second win of the season.
“Having three seniors score all three goals and having Liam in net for the win is pretty special given that it was an emotional day,” Fishman said.
Middlebury and Hamilton will meet for a third time on Saturday, Feb. 27 in Hamilton and the winner will move into the NESCAC semifinals the following weekend.
“To beat Hamilton on Saturday,” Fishman said, “it’s going to take a full 60-minute effort from everyone.”
(02/18/16 4:07am)
ntering its last weekend of the regular season, the Middlebury men’s hockey team still has a chance to earn a home game in the NESCAC playoffs, but those chances are much slimmer after a tough six game stretch that includes a current three game losing streak. The Panthers beat Connecticut College 1-0 on Jan. 29, tied Tufts and Wesleyan on Jan. 30 and Feb. 5, then lost to Trinity and Williams twice on Feb. 6 and Feb. 11-12, respectively, falling from fourth to sixth in the NESCAC standings.
Middlebury was the favorite entering its home matchup with Conn. College, who sat winless in the NESCAC on Friday, Jan. 29, but that was not the case for much of the game. It looked like the Panthers took the lead halfway through the first period when Terrance Goguen ’16 fired a shot from the left circle that appeared to find the back of the net, but upon conferring, the referees waved the goal off. Both teams had several power play opportunities, five for the Panthers and four for the Camels, but neither could capitalize on their advantages.
Late in the third period, as the Panthers attempted to kill a penalty, Vincent Gisonti ’18 out-hustled the opposition to a puck in the Camels’ end and wrapped it around, but Camel netminder Tom Conlin stopped the attempt to force overtime. Just past the midway point of overtime, Conn. College turned the puck over at their own blue line and Gisonti got to it first once again. He carried the puck down the left side and slung a wrist shot above Conlin’s left shoulder and just below the bar for his team-leading seventh goal of the season.
The 1-0 Middlebury victory was the team’s first overtime win in six tries this season. Stephen Klein ’18 was stout in net all night, stopping 24 shots, and recorded his third shutout of the season.
The following night, the Panthers hosted Tufts (2-6-3 in the NESCAC entering the contest) hoping to win two games in a row for the first time this season. However, Tufts scored first when David Lackner beat Klein on a rebound 5:56 into the contest on a Jumbo power play. Early in the second period, Tufts netminder Mason Pulde stopped a shot from Mark McLellan ’18, but Jake Charles ’16 was there to put the rebound in and tie the game at one apiece. Tufts went back ahead later in the period and held a 2-1 lead entering the final third of regulation.
Three minutes into the third period, Evan Neugold ’16 fed Mike Najjar ’17, who backhanded a shot past Pulde to tie the game. Less than four minutes later, the Jumbos once again responded to take the lead, converting on the power play for the second time in two tries. With less than three minutes remaining in regulation, Middlebury went on the power play for the sixth time after failing to score in its first five one-man advantages. Almost immediately, the puck ended up with Klein, who handed it off to Neugold.
Neugold skated up the ice and into the Tufts zone, past the blue line and what looked like an intentional pick set by a Middlebury player. Neugold beat the Tufts defense down the right side and set up Brendan McGovern ’16 in front of a wide open net and the Panthers were able to tie the game at three.
“That definitely wasn’t how we drew it up, but we knew that it would be a 4-on-3 situation withalotofroomontheiceto make a play,” Neugold said. “I tried to take advantage of how much room they gave me and how flat-footed they were at their own blue line.”
The game ended in a 3-3 tie as neither team could score in the waning minutes of regulation or overtime.
The Panthers traveled to Connecticut the following weekend, Feb. 5-6, to face-off against Wesleyan and Trinity. On Friday, the Panthers took control against Wesleyan (2- 4-6 in the NESCAC) early, as Kamil Tkaczuk ’19 and McLellan scored within the first five minutes of the game. It marked McLellan’s first goal of the season. Wesleyan got one goal back later that period, but Neugold responded with his fifth goal of the season in the second third.
Shortly after Neugold’s goal, starting goalie Klein exited the game with an apparent injury and Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16 entered as his replacement between the posts. Late in the second period, Charles and Spencer Cage ’19 were both sent to the penalty box, and the Cardinals capitalized on the 5-on-3 power play to make it a one goal game entering the third period.
Wesleyan tied the game a little over eight minutes into the final period. Once again, neither team could break the tie, and the Panthers tied their second straight game.
After going ahead of Wesleyan 2-0 on Friday, Middlebury found themselves behind Trinity by the same score at the end of the first period on Saturday. Trinity scored on the power play 2:42 into the game and then later in the period, also, as the Bantams outshot the Panthers 16-2 in the first third of the game. Travis Stephens ’18 got the Panthers on the board a little over halfway through the second period, but Trinity regained its two goal lead later in the same period and then added an insurance goal in the third period for the 4-1 win. Moorfield-Yee stopped 39 shots, but the Bantams outshot the Panthers 43-18, thoroughly dominating play.
In their final two games before the spring semester began, the Panthers played a doubleheader with first-place Williams, traveling to Williams on Thursday, Feb. 11 before hosting the Ephs the next day, dropping both games by one goal after leading early by two.
Just past the halfway point of the first period on Thursday, Feb. 11, Zach Haggerty ’16 received the puck at his own blue line, beat three Williams defenders in the neutral zone and backhanded a shot into the back of the net for a 1-0 Middlebury lead. The Ephs countered with a goal later that period, and the contest was tied after one period.
Haggerty scored his second goal of the game by being in the right place at the right time, getting to a loose puck in the crease and knocking it home 6:09 into the second period. Ronald Fishman ’16 extended the Panthers’ lead to two off a feed from Neugold and, with one period to go against the conference- leading Ephs, held a 3-1 lead.
The Ephs quickly and decisively took a 4-3 lead in less than 14 minutes. A minute after Williams took the lead, the Panthers went on the power play and Zach Weier ’18 scored his first career goal from the point, tying the game at four. Moorfield-Yee did all he could in regulation, saving 45 of the 50 shots on goal, but Colby Cretella beat him one minute into overtime to win the game 5-4 for Williams.
Middlebury scored first again on Friday when, on the power play, Stephens gathered a Najjar shot that ricocheted off the boards and slid it past Williams netminder Michael Pinios. Haggerty scored his third goal in two games and seventh on the season to tie for the team lead with Gisonti over halfway through the second period, but the Ephs answered with two goals to tie the game entering the final twenty minutes of regulation. They took the lead less than four minutes into the third and would not relinquish it the rest of the day.
“We made enough little mistakes that a team as skilled as Williams was able to capitalize on them and come back from a 2 goal deficit,” said Haggerty.
Middlebury pulled Moorfield-Yee with 1:12 remaining and earned a power play 37 seconds later, giving the Panthers a two-man advantage for the last 35 seconds of regulation. Tkaczuk took a shot to tie the game, but it was blocked and Williams won for the second straight night.
The Panthers, now 6-10-6 overall and 5-5-6 in the NESCAC, slid to sixth in the NESCAC standings, directly behind Hamilton in fourth and Amherst in fifth. In their final two regular season games, they host Hamilton and Amherst on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 20-21, with the opportunity to leapfrog both in the standings if they win both contests.
(01/28/16 12:02am)
The men’s hockey team defeated Colby 4-2 on Friday, Jan. 22, starting last weekend’s trip to Maine on a high note, before falling 2-1 to Bowdoin the next. The Panthers hold steady in fourth place in the NESCAC, still in position to host a game in the NESCAC playoffs.
Middlebury entered Alfond Rink as the favorite after handling the Mules 4-0 in the first matchup and took a lead 6:49 into the game. From behind the net, Ronald Fishman ’16 faked a pass to the front of the net, brought the puck around himself and elevated a backhand shot to the top-right corner of the net. David Belluche ’18 and Evan Neugold ’16 assisted on the goal, Neugold’s team leading ninth on the season.
1:46 into the second period, Kamil Tkaczuk ’19 set up Brendan McGovern ’16 who put the Panthers ahead 2-0. Seven minutes later, Colby’s Kevin Doherty was whistled for high sticking. A little over halfway through the power play, Jonathan Sdao broke free for the Mules and put one past Stephen Klein ’18 for a shorthanded goal. The Mules tied the game up later in the same period, and the scoreboard showed a tie game entering the final period of regulation.
“Second periods have been our Achilles heel this year. It has been a real challenge to keep the momentum we gain in the first. It is all about putting it together for a full 60 minutes,” Alternate Captain Terrance Goguen ’16 said. “When we get in a rut, our coaches remind us to keep it simple and get the puck in deep. When we try and do too much, we screw up.”
Andrew Neary ’17 broke the tie 5:26 into the third period when he deflected Fishman’s shot from the point past the Colby goalie for his first career goal.
“It [Neary’s goal] was, frankly, one of the ugliest of the season,” Goguen said. “But, at the end of the day, they don’t ask ‘how,’ they ask ‘how many.’”
Another Colby penalty interrupted its comeback attempt with 1:30 remaining, and the Mules pulled their goalie to make it 5-on-5 again. Zach Haggerty ’16 sealed the deal with an empty-net goal, giving the Panthers a 4-2 victory and a season sweep over the Mules. Klein made 31 saves in net to win his fourth game of the season.
In the first meeting between Middlebury and Bowdoin, the Panthers took a commanding 4-1 lead in the first period, but Bowdoin fought all the way back to earn a 4-4 tie. Bowdoin struck first this time when, midway through the first period, Klein stopped a Polar Bear shot but Mark Sullivan got to the rebound and beat Klein.
Vincent Gisonti ’18 tied the game for the Panthers 10:40 into the second period. From the right side, Fishman slung the puck through traffic and Gisonti got his stick on it to redirect it into the net.
Coming out of the locker room for the third period, Paul Falvey ’16 almost put the Panthers ahead but could not quite touch it past the Bowdoin netminder Peter Cronin. Mike Najjar ’17 ripped a slap shot with a little over seven minutes remaining, but Cronin nabbed it with his glove. With less than two minutes left, the puck found Conroy racing down the middle. He carried the puck to the left side then passed right to Cody Tedesco, who beat Klein for the go-ahead goal.
The Panthers outshot the Polar Bears 40-29, but could not beat Cronin in the waning seconds, who ended up with 39 saves on the night in the 2-1 Bowdoin win.
“We had a great possession game. We took great shots from the point, but need to generate a little more traffic in front of the net and the dirty areas. We are getting the chances we just need to convert and bear down in front,” Goguen said. “Finishing has been a big theme in practice and will come in handy in these last 8 games. In a league like the NESCAC, where ever game is even money, it comes down to who can convert those dirty ones.”
Middlebury returns home to host Connecticut College and Tufts on Jan. 29 and 30 respectively.
(01/21/16 12:32am)
The men’s hockey team remained in the top four of the NESCAC after going 2-4-2 since leaving for Winter break. The Panthers’ record stayed even in the conference with a 1-1-2 record over that time, including a win over then fifth-ranked Amherst and an overtime loss to No. 8 Trinity.
“We have put ourselves in a perfect position to secure a home game for playoffs or even host NESCACs if we play the way we are capable of playing for our remaining conference games,” Team Captain Evan Neugold ’16 said. “It is in our hands, which is what you always want as a team coming down the second half of the season.”
Entering their game at Hamilton on Friday, Dec. 11, the Panthers still stood undefeated in the NESCAC at 2-0-2. Middlebury jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Ronald Fishman ’16 and Max Greenwald ’16, but Hamilton scored three unanswered goals in seven minutes in the second. Travis Stephens ’18 tied the game in the final period, and neither team could score in overtime as it ended in a 3-3 tie. Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16 made a career high 49 saves.
The following night Middlebury travelled to face no. 5 Amherst for a battle of undefeateds in the NESCAC. Behind Stephen Klein’s ’18 33 saves, the Panthers shutout the Lord Jeffs 2-0, earning some redemption after losing all three matchups last season. Greenwald put the Panthers ahead a little over 13 minutes into the contest, Mark Lyman ’19 added one more in the second period, and Klein did the rest as he recorded his second shutout of the season.
In their first action of the new year, the Panthers hosted the Middlebury Holiday Classic on Jan. 2-3. In their first game, the Panthers handled SUNY Canton 6-3 as Moorfield-Yee won his first game of the year in net and Vincent Gisonti ’18, Spencer Cage ’19, Neugold, Jake Charles ’16, Brendan McGovern ’16, and Zach Haggerty ’16 all scored goals.
Middlebury faced Neumann in the championship the next day. All of the scoring occurred in the second period, and, after building a two goal lead, the Knights held off the Panthers for a 2-1 victory. Down 2-0, Stephens put the Panthers on the scoreboard by carrying the puck the length of the ice and slinging a wrist shot below the crossbar. Middlebury outshot Neumann 20-9 in the period and 48-29 in the game, but could not beat the Knight netminder and tournament MVP Tyler LeFebvre more than once.
“We need to be able to finish and put the puck in the back of the net when it counts,” Neugold said. “Those one goal games were all great games, unfortunately the other teams finished their chances and we didn’t.”
The Panthers returned to action the following weekend when they travelled to Wesleyan on Jan. 9. Matt Doherty ’19 drove home a shot from just inside the blue line to put the Panthers ahead in the first period. Mike Najjar ’17 made it 2-0 early in the third period off a rebound. After Wesleyan tied it up, Neugold swatted a rebound out of midair and into the back of the net to put Middlebury ahead again. Just 1:33 later, Wesleyan knotted the game at three, and the game ended that way, 3-3—even as the Panthers outshot their opponent again (33-24).
The next day, Middlebury stayed in Connecticut to face off with no. 8 Trinity. The Panthers drew first blood 2:31 into the game when Najjar slotted one beneath the crossbar. Trinity responded a little over five minutes later to tie the game, but Kamil Tkaczuk ’19 notched his first career goal and gave the Panthers a 2-1 lead after the first period. Trinity tied the game over halfway through the second period, and that score held through the rest of regulation. However, with twenty seconds left in regulation, Stephens earned a trip to the box for charging, leaving the Panthers a man down for 1:40 in overtime. On the power play, the Bantams tallied the game-winner 58 seconds into the overtime period, giving the Panthers their first NESCAC loss—the third game in a row they outshot their opponent (36-23) but failed to win.
The Panthers’ next two games did not get any easier as they faced No. 11 Norwich on Tuesday, Jan. 12 and No. 4 Plattsburgh St. on Friday, Jan. 15. Against Norwich, Haggerty put Middlebury ahead 4:05 into the first period, but Norwich responded with a power play goal to tie the game later in the first. The Cadets took the lead early in the second period which they quickly followed with a shorthanded goal, but Neugold added one for the Panthers to make it 3-2. Norwich extended their lead to three with two power play goals, one in the second period and one in the third. Charles netted an unassisted goal, but that was it for the Panthers as they lost 5-3.
Neither Middlebury nor Plattsburgh St. could find the back of the net in the first third of action on Friday, but Plattsburgh’s Michael Radisa scored twice in the second period to cripple the Panthers. The Cardinals added an insurance goal and skated away with a 3-0 win.
“We played very well in all 3 games. Just a couple of mistakes cost us,” Neugold said. “We know we can compete with the best teams.”
Sitting at 4-6-4 overall, Middlebury returns to the ice this upcoming weekend when they travel to Maine to play at Colby and Bowdoin Jan. 22-23, as they look to snap the three game losing streak.
(12/03/15 12:58am)
The Middlebury men’s hockey team opened its new season, and the Neil Sinclair coaching era, by defeating Colby 4-0 and tying Bowdoin 4-4 on Nov. 21 and 22. The following weekend, Nov. 27-28, the Panthers fell to Plattsburgh St. 5-4 and Connecticut College 1-0 in the PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut.
Against Bowdoin in the season and NESCAC opener, the teams looked even in the first period until Panther defenseman Terrance Goguen ’16 scored off a faceoff win by Evan Neugold ’16 with 5:19 remaining.
The Panthers added to their lead 11:21 into the second period during Colby’s power play. Verrier circled behind his net to set up another Colby attack off of a Middlebury clearance, but misplayed it. Vincent Gisonti ’18 beat everyone down the ice and wrapped the puck into the empty net.
“[Vinny’s goal] really sparked us,” Neugold said. “After that, we really controlled the tempo of the game.”
Colby did have several chances to score in the first two periods, but Panther netminder Stephen Klein ’18 was stout all night, saving 28 shots — 26 of which came in the first two periods. The Panthers also successfully killed three Colby power plays in the second period.
Middlebury dominated the third period, outshooting Colby 15-2 and scoring twice more to secure the four-goal victory. Neugold assisted on both goals: first feeding Jake Charles ’16, last season’s leading scorer, for Charles’ first goal of the season, and then setting up Spencer Cage ’19’s first career goal.
The 1-0 Panthers came out hot against Bowdoin the next day, building a 4-1 lead in the first period, but the Polar Bears came back in the third period to tie the game.
Just 4:12 into the contest, Brendan McGovern skated down the right side and beat Polar Bear goalie Peter Cronin.
After Bowdoin tied the game at one, Haggerty put the Panthers back in front with a shot to the top left corner off a feed from Braeden Quast ’18. Gisonti and McGovern made it a three goal lead by the end of the first period with their second goals of the season.
In the second period, Mike Sullivan took one off the Polar Bears’ three goal deficit when he created some space for himself and snuck a wrist shot past Klein.
Off the opening faceoff of the third period, Spencer Antunez scored just seven seconds in, making it a one goal game. With 8:45 left in the period, Bowdoin’s Matt Rubinoff tied the game at four on a shot from the left circle.
“Unfortunately, we stopped playing the way we had the first 40 minutes of the game and they capitalized on a couple of mistakes,” Neugold said.
With a tie score, both teams had one power play, but neither could convert the man-up advantage into a game-winning goal. Klein and Nathan Colannino, who came on in Bowdoin’s net for Cronin, made several saves to keep the score at 4-4 and force overtime. Klein saved 29 of 33 shots on the day, while Colaninno stopped all 21 shots in his direction.
The best chance for either side in overtime came in the closing moments, when Cody Tedesco fired a shot that Klein made a blocker save on. The puck landed in front of the net and all skaters closed on it, but Klein came away with it and the referee blew the play dead to end the game in a tie.
The schedule didn’t get any easier over Thanksgiving break, as Middlebury traveled to Northfield, VT to play number two in the nation Plattsburgh St. in the first round of the PrimeLink Great Northern ShootOut hosted by Norwich, falling 5-4 in a back-and-forth contest.
The Panthers scored first again against the Cardinals on Friday, Nov. 27, and did so quickly; Charles notched his second goal of the year just 39 seconds in. Plattsburgh responded less than four minutes later, but Middlebury regained the lead on Matt Doherty ’19’s first career goal less than two minutes later. The Cardinals responded with two goals from Jesse Neher and Cole Stallard to take a one-goal lead into the first break.
The game seemed to be slipping away from the Panthers in the second period, when Plattsburgh extended its lead to two by converting a Middlebury turnover.
However, the game was far from over; 5:02 into the third period, Neugold sent a shot into the top corner of the net on a Middlebury power play, and Gisonti scored his third goal in as many games with just under seven minutes remaining in regulation to knot the game at four.
With a little over five minutes left in regulation, the Cardinals’ Matt Quilty put the Panthers away for good on a power play goal, giving the Cardinals the 5-4 victory and ending the Panthers’ comeback attempt.
“I’m really proud of the way we competed and the effort that all the guys gave,” Neugold said. “We didn’t get the win but we know we can play with the best teams in the nation.”
The loss pitted Middlebury against Connecticut College in the ShootOut consolation game the following day, and after two periods of scoreless play, the Panthers were defeated 1-0.
Liam Moorfield-Yee ’16, making his first start of the year in net for Middlebury, and Camel goalie Tom Conlin turned away 16 and 18 shots, respectively, in the first 40 minutes.
With 8:25 remaining in the third period, Jake Giordano beat the Panther defense and dished the puck off to Joe Birmingham for the first and only goal of the contest.
This loss to Conn. College brought Middlebury to 1-2-1 on the season. However, since the tournament game did not count in the conference, the Panthers still have a 1-0-1 NESCAC record.
Men’s hockey will travel to Conn. College on Friday, Dec. 4 for a chance to avenge their loss and then on to Tufts on Saturday, Dec. 5.
(11/11/15 9:34pm)
Leading up to the matchup between Middlebury and Wesleyan in the semifinal, Head Coach Dave Saward predicted that it would be a very even contest. He was correct, and after no score in regulation and two overtimes, the Middlebury men’s soccer team fell to Wesleyan by penalty kicks (5-4) in the NESCAC tournament semifinals on Saturday, Nov. 7. The loss ended the Panthers’ season when they were not granted an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
The Cardinals came out with a lot of confidence after upsetting previously undefeated Amherst looking to knock off the highest-seed remaining in the NESCAC tournament for the second straight game, and possessed the ball early on by moving the ball well.
In the 18th minute, the Panthers moved into the offensive end and Daniel O’Grady ’19 played a little chip to Greg Conrad ’17. Conrad gave it right back on a lead pass into the box, and O’Grady cut into the middle and fired a low shot that Wesleyan goalkeeper Jack Katkavich pounced on. Four minutes later, Adam Glaser ’17 attacked from left to right, using his speed to draw a foul and set up a free kick. Glaser lined up the kick and sent it past Wesleyan’s wall to the right side, but Katkavich dove and corralled the shot to keep the game scoreless.
Off another Wesleyan foul in the 27th minute, Conrad’s header off the free kick was stopped but rebounded to Kyle Moffat ’19 who got his head on it. It looked like Moffat had scored the game’s first goal, but Wesleyan’s Charlie Gruner cleared the ball off the goal line to prevent the goal. Wesleyan had a chance of their own less than a minute later, but Max Jones’ chip sailed over the bar.
Neither team could separate itself from the other as the game continued to be wide open in the second half. Both the Panthers and the Cardinals created numerous opportunities but could not put the ball in the net. Glaser and Conrad both missed just wide, and Wesleyan’s leading scorer Chris Kafina came close to breaking the deadlock as well. As tension rose on the field and in the stands, the game remained scoreless and the teams needed overtime to settle.
Deklan Robinson ’16 almost ended the game in the 96th minute when he rose up to head a corner kick that went just to the right of the goal.
Fatigue started to show in the second overtime period when the Middlebury defense sloppily let Adam Cowie-Haskell get free for a one-on-one with Panther goalkeeper Greg Sydor ’17. Sydor was able to deny Cowie-Haskell to bail his defense out, and had to do so again less than three minutes later when Kafina beat the exhausted Middlebury side. Sydor made the save, keeping the score 0-0 and forcing a penalty shootout to decide who would advance to the NESCAC championship game.
In front of Middlebury’s largest and loudest home crowd this season, Kirk Horton ’17 took Middlebury’s first shot and sent it over the bar. Brandon Sousa knocked his in the opposite direction of the diving Sydor and put Wesleyan ahead 1-0. Robinson got Middlebury on track, tying the score, but Gruner quickly responded, just beating the outstretched Sydor. Down 2-1, Tom Bean ’17 brought the Panthers even again with his penalty kick.
Then Sydor stepped up again, making a diving save on Hans Erickson’s shot to keep the score even, or so it seemed. The line judge ruled that Sydor left his line early and awarded Erickson another attempt, which he made to put Wesleyan up by one again.
“In 31 years, I have never seen a retake,” Saward said. “It was a very questionable decision. To me it was a great save.”
Glaser, Kafina and Andres Chamorro ’16 all scored, so with the score tied, it came down to Dylan Hoy against Sydor. Hoy chipped his shot right down the middle, beating Sydor who dove off to the side.
With the win, the Cardinals advanced to the championship, but fell to Bowdoin there, as the Polar Bears won their second NESCAC title in a row.
The loss left the Panthers hoping for an at-large bid into the NCAA tournament to continue their season when the committee announced the field on Monday, Nov. 9. Middlebury did not get a bid, and they ended their season with a 13-2-2 record, while Bowdoin, Amherst, and Tufts will represent the NESCAC in the NCAA tournament, the latter two as at-large selections.
“This is one of the very best teams I have coached here,” Saward said. “They captured the real essence of what it means to be on a team. They worked hard and supported one another throughout the whole year, and every single member of the squad impacted the outcome.”
Although ultimately a disappointing way to end the season, the 2015 season will be in the record books for a number of reasons. The Panthers tied the program’s single game goal record with 10 against Green Mountain State. They broke the 17-year old season goal record by scoring their 46th goal of the year against Trinity in the NESCAC quarterfinals. Adam Glaser set both the single season and career assist records with 14 assists this year, twice as many as any other player in the NESCAC, and 23 on his career. Entering his senior season, Glaser will need 16 points to break Kyle Dezotell ’03’s career points record of 90.
Robinson, Chamorro, Tyler Bonini ’16, Andres Rodlauer ’16 and John Lower ’16 will all graduate this spring. Robinson’s started 57 games in his four career at Middlebury, scoring seven goals and assisting on 6 while playing defensive back for a defense that conceded eight goals in 17 games this season.
“They have been the foundation of the team’s success, and will leave a legacy of excellence both on the field and in the classroom that will inspire those that follow,” Saward said. “We will miss them all.”
The Panthers will have nine players who started at least ten games this year returning for the 2016 season, including Glaser, Conrad, Horton and Bean, who started all 17 games this season.
(11/05/15 1:02am)
The Middlebury men’s soccer team advanced to the NESCAC tournament semifinals on Saturday, Oct. 31 by stomping Trinity 5-0. Adam Glaser ’17 continued his record-breaking season by setting the program’s career assist record and earning NESCAC player of the week.
The Panthers defeated Bates 4-1 on Saturday, Oct. 24 and Williams 1-0 on Wednesday, Oct. 28 to clinch the second seed in the tournament, hold off Tufts, and extend their winning streak to six games.
At Bates, Middlebury fell behind 1-0 for the fifth time in their last six NESCAC games when Noah Riskind found the back of the net in the third minute for the Bobcats. Playing from behind, the Panthers outshot the Bobcats in the first half, but the score remained 1-0 entering the halfway point.
Greg Conrad ’17 tied the game in the 60th minute off an assist from Glaser, and less than a minute later, Tim Ogle ’17 put the Panthers ahead.
“The team has shown resilience,” Head Coach David Saward said. “We’ve got an inner belief that even when we give up a goal we can get back into it.”
In the 78th minute, Conrad scored his second goal of the game off another brilliant setup from Glaser. Daniel O’Grady ’19 added one more for Middlebury in the 86th minute, as the Panthers sealed a 4-1 victory, outshooting Bates 26-3 and staying a half-game ahead of Tufts in the standings.
Heading into their regular season finale against Williams, the Panthers could clinch second place in the NESCAC with a win.
The Panther defense did its job all afternoon, but the offense could not breakthrough in regulation so the game went to overtime. A little under five minutes into overtime, Glaser passed to Kyle Moffat ’19 who attacked Williams’ net. Drawing the keeper out, Moffat went back to Glaser, and the junior one-touched Moffat’s feed into the empty net from a difficult angle for the game-winning goal.
The Panthers finished the regular season with a 13-2-1 overall record and a 7-2-1 mark in the NESCAC. With that record, Middlebury grabbed the second seed in the NESCAC tournament and drew seventh-seeded Trinity in the quarterfinals on Saturday, whom they had come behind to beat 2-1 two weeks earlier.
Trinity almost struck first again when Sam Milbury got free down the right side and launched a shot from 12 yards out but missed just over the crossbar in the 17th minute.
Three minutes later, Glaser drove down the left side with pace, feeding the ball to Conrad in the middle, who touched it back to O’Grady. The midfielder played a beautiful little chip over the defense to Luis Echeverria ’17, who slid his shot past the Trinity keeper for the first goal of the contest.
Glaser put tremendous pressure on the right side of the Trinity defense when he attacked carried the ball along the left again and sent a cross through the air to the middle. Echeverria was in the right place at the right time once again, and headed the ball towards the net. Domenic Quade stopped the first attempt, but Echeverria got to the rebound first and knocked his second goal past Quade.
Middlebury persisted offensively, but Quade made a nice save on a shot by O’Grady off a pretty setup from Conrad. O’Grady then set substitute Jeremy Barovick loose down the left side with a pass, and Barovick made a nice cut into the middle only to see his left-footed shot sail way left of the mark. The Panthers still held their two-goal lead with 45 minutes between them and a berth and the semifinals, and needed one more strong half to get there.
“In the first fifteen minutes of the second half, we defended efficiently. They never really got a look at the goal,” Saward said. “But we didn’t really have the ball much, and we didn’t really make any inroads.”
In the 72nd minute, Glaser sent in a corner kick that Moffat directed from his head to Conrad’s before Conrad finished it off.
“The corner kick is a bit of our bread and butter right now,” Saward said. “We’re big and strong and pretty good in the air. That goal really killed the game off.”
With that assist, Glaser became the all-time assist leader in program history with 23, breaking Baer Fisher ’09’s and Kyle Dezotell ’03’s record of 22. Three minutes later, Conrad’s deft pass set up the speedy Glaser who raced past the defense and powered a shot past Quade.
“Glaser’s goal was wonderful,” Saward said. “He can do that.”
Tyler Bonini ’16 made history for the Panthers in the 82nd minute when he tapped in a goal off assists from Echeverria and Tom Dils ’17, scoring Middlebury’s record-setting 46th goal of the season and breaking the 1998 team’s record of 45 goals in a single season.
Middlebury secured the 5-0 win, and Greg Sydor ’17 did not have to make a single save.
As the highest seed remaining, the Panthers host the semifinals and championship on Nov. 7-8. They will matchup with eighth-seeded Wesleyan on Saturday while Connecticut College and Bowdoin will play in the other semifinal game.
(10/22/15 12:28am)
The women’s field hockey team continued their winning streak at home last weekend with wins over NESCAC opponent Trinity on Saturday, Oct. 17 (6-0), and non-conference challenger Husson University on Sunday, Oct. 18 (5-0). With two conference games remaining in regular season play, the third-ranked Panthers (12-1, 7-1) have now won eight in a row.
Saturday’s Homecoming match-up against Trinity proved an easy win, as four first-half goals and a hat trick from Pam Schulman ’17 led the Panthers to a 6-0 victory on Kohn Field.
Middlebury’s offensive spree began in the 15th minute when Schulman scored her first goal off an unassisted penalty corner. Less than three minutes later, Schulman netted her second of the day, lifting a pass from Bridget Instrum ’16 over the head of Trinity goalie Sophie Fitzpatrick to put the Panthers up 2-0. Four minutes later and only 12 minutes after her first goal, Schulman completed her hat trick off a pass from Annie Leonard ’18.
“We have been trying some people at different positions and things really clicked in the games this weekend,” Schulman said. “We focused on running the ball rather than just hitting it up field, and got a few really good points early on against Trinity.”
In the 26th minute, Grace Jennings ’19 assisted Molly Freeman ’19 in netting her 11th goal of the season. This put the Panthers up 4-0 at the half.
Leonard came into the second half with some fire, scoring two goals in the 42nd and 43rd minutes to finish Middlebury’s strong offensive performance.
Trinity’s best scoring opportunity came in the 63rd minute when Olivia Tapsall hit a penalty shot from just inside the circle, but Panther goalie Emily Miller ’17 blocked the shot to hold on to her third straight shutout. Miller recorded four saves as the Panthers held a 21-7 advantage in shots and an 11-5 edge in penalty corners. Fitzpatrick posted 12 stops for the Bantams.
Just a day later, another four goal first-half led the Panthers to a 5-0 victory over the Husson Eagles at Kohn Field. Middlebury got on the scoreboard early, when Schulman netted her 11th goal of the season just three minutes into the game. At the 6:50 mark, Leonard capitalized on a pass from Jennings to put the Panthers up 2-0 and record her team-leading 13th goal of the season.
Jennings assisted on the next goal as well, sending a give-and-go pass to Instrum, who scored her seventh of the year. The Panthers closed out the first half by scoring in the 27th minute when Shannon Hutteman ’16 sent a penalty corner flying past Eagle goalie Anne-Marie Provencal for a 4-0 lead. Both Anna Kenyon ’16 and Instrum were credited with the assist.
A single goal in the 59th minute from Carson Peacock ’18 solidified the Panthers’ 5-0 victory. Audrey Quirk ’18 carried the ball downfield and sent a crossing pass to Peacock, who converted for her second of the year.
“The highlight of the Husson game was Peacock’s goal in the second half,” Schulman said. “She caught a pass on the far left post and managed to put it in past a really aggressive goalie. It was a great goal.”
Miller had one save for the Panthers in the first half, and Evangeline Dunphy ’18 cinched a scoreless second half in the goal. On the other hand, Husson’s Provencal finished with 10 stops for the Eagles. Middlebury dominated offensively, holding a 28-3 advantage in shots and a 17-2 edge in penalty corners.
“Our defensive penalty corner unit, with really consistent goal keeping, has been stable and kept teams scoreless the last four games,” Head Coach Katharine DeLorenzo noted. “Our continued ability to find scoring from at least two or three different people per game makes it difficult for other teams to prepare well.”
The Panthers will return to play on Saturday afternoon, when they travel to Maine for a conference match-up against the Bates Bobcats.
(10/22/15 12:05am)
Noah Farrell ’18 won the Division III singles national title at the 2015 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Saturday, Oct. 17 in Sumter, South Carolina. With the win, Farrell became the first singles national champion in the history of the Middlebury men’s tennis program.
“It was very fun and exciting to have the opportunity to play against the other top players,” Farrell said. “Winning this tournament means so much to me. I’m humbled and honored to accomplish what I accomplished, and I’m so happy to do it for Middlebury College.”
He claimed the championship by defeating Rafe Mosetick of Emory in straight sets (6-4, 6-4) on Saturday morning to cap off an amazing and unexpected run by the sophomore.
“[This] couldn’t happen to a finer or more deserving young man,” Head Coach Bob Hansen said. “He is a brilliant combination of confidence and humility, appreciating challenges and playing with great composure and sportsmanship. He has been a complete pleasure to work with.”
As the Division III champion, Farrell competed in the “Super Bowl” semifinal featuring the NCAA Division II, NAIA and Junior College national champions, but fell to Division II champion Jan Meyer of Azusa Pacific 6-3, 6-2, ending his chance at qualifying for the 2015 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in Flushing Meadows, New York.
Last season, Farrell, a four-time state champion in high school, earned NESCAC Rookie of the Year with a 24-9 singles record as Middlebury’s number two player and reached the ITA Regional quarterfinals before bowing out to Steven Chen of Wesleyan in the quarterfinals. He was also a key cog on the team that advanced to the NCAA championship before falling to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, and finished the season ranked as the 20th best Division III player in the Northeast. So, as a sophomore, he was expected to be a key player on a team that has serious championship aspirations, but no outsider could have predicted his meteoric rise to the best player in Division III men’s tennis.
“I think that my mental game has improved a ton as well as my tennis game,” Farrell said. “My coaches have helped me tremendously throughout the fall, making me a lot better and lot stronger so I give a lot of credit to them.”
His pursuit of the national title officially began the following weekend when he took first place at the New England ITA Regional Championships, defeating Steven Chen of Wesleyan 6-1, 6-3 to avenge last year’s loss and becoming the first Middlebury men’s player to be New England’s top player since Andy Peters did it in 2009.
Unseeded in the eight man field in South Carolina, Farrell drew the second-seeded and defending national champion Nicholas Chua of Chicago in the first round on Thursday, Oct. 15 and dismantled him in straight sets 6-2, 6-2.
“With such high stakes, this was probably one of the biggest tournaments I’ve ever played in,” Farrell said. “I tried not to think about how big the tournament was. Rather, I tried to think about playing each point and each match like it was a regular match.”
In the semifinal on Friday, Farrell overcame Mohanad Al-Houni 6-4, 7-6 (4) to set up the match with Mosetick. Then, by beating Mosetick in straight sets Saturday morning, Farrell completed his remarkable run to the championship without losing a single set.
“He seemed to improve with each match, and was always at his best when it mattered most,” Hansen said.
Even after the loss to Meyer, Farrell finished the fall season with a 19-2 record, and was undefeated against Division III competition since his only other loss came at the hands of Division I opponent Peter Tarwid of Brown. In fact, he did not lose a set against Division III competition all fall, boding well for him and the Middlebury men’s tennis team this spring.
“I’m so excited to keep working on my game and striving to achieve our ultimate goal, which is to win a team national championship,” Farrell said.
Farrell hopes to avenge his team’s loss to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the NCAA championships, and if this fall is any indication, Farrell and the Panthers are primed to make a run at it. With the 5’7” sophomore out there competing, Coach Hansen has an enormous building block.