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(11/15/18 10:59am)
After racking up a total of 13 goals in two massive wins, field hockey hits the road for Spooky Nook in Manheim, Pennsylvania, for the NCAA Championship weekend.
On Saturday, Middlebury easily defeated Keene State by a whopping score of 8-0, scoring four goals in each half. The Panthers dominated throughout the game, managing to rip 31 shots while allowing only two attempts from the visitors. Erin Nicholas ’21 and Grace Jennings ’19 each scored twice while Emma Johns ’20, Ali Denby ’20, Julia Richards ’20 and Amanda Bozorgi ’19 each tallied one goal.
Middlebury took home the NCAA Regional Championship title on Sunday with a 5-1 victory against The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). The Panthers drew 11 penalty corners and made 20 shots, compared to TCNJ’s three and five, respectively. Johns, Nicholas and Jennings each scored another goal, while Meg Fearey ’21 and Marissa Baker ’20 also joined the long list of goal-scorers this weekend.
It is not uncommon for teams to let their guard down when in complete control of a game, which can sometimes lead to mistakes. But Middlebury’s commitment to its game plan was as strong as ever this weekend. “On Sunday, we were up by three within the first 10 minutes of being on the field,” Fearey explained. “However, this did not change our game. We don’t settle until a game is completely over, treating every minute as if it’s tied 0-0. It’s this mentality that contributes to our successes and allows us to be together for one more week and compete in the Final Four.”
With the NCAA Championship approaching and just one more week of practice left, the team remains focused on the present.
“One of the hardest things to do in sports is to defend a championship,” Baker said. “Every year is a clean slate for a team, for better or for worse. What we did or didn’t accomplish last season has no effect on this season. So all we do is take it one game at a time, one team at a time.”
Nevertheless, the Panthers are feeling confident in their team’s ability and are ready to take flight at Spooky Nook this weekend. “I’m so proud of how far this team has come this season,” Bozorgi, one of the senior captains, said. “I feel like every week we’re just improving and adapting and hitting our peak just at the right time. I think that we’re just where we want to be heading into the Final Four this weekend.”
Led by repeat NESCAC Coach of the Year Katharine DeLorenzo, the Panthers will take on Rowan at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Tufts, who earned a bid after losing to Middlebury last weekend, battles Johns Hopkins in the other semifinal. The winners will meet in the NCAA Championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
(11/08/18 11:00am)
The Middlebury field hockey team was out to win this weekend, defeating both Trinity and Tufts to win the NESCAC Championship for the second year in a row. This is the sixth title in program history and the fifth in the last seven years.
On Saturday, the Panthers knocked Trinity out of the semi-finals with a 1-0 victory at home. Despite the cold, rainy weather, excitement was high going into the match. Right from the start, Middlebury was out to win, creating several scoring opportunities in the first few minutes. At 10:37, Marissa Baker ’20 buried a centering pass from Erin Nicholas ’21 to edge the Panthers ahead. At halftime, electricity in the air caused a long weather delay, but Middlebury remained focused in the second half. The visitors posted some good scoring chances, but goalie Meg Collins ’19.5 made two incredible saves to keep the score at 1-0.
It wasn’t until Saturday evening that Tufts defeated Williams in the second semi-final game, securing their spot in the final on Sunday. “We definitely are not a team that thinks about the next game or hypothetical future, we focus on the game ahead of us and take it one step at a time,” Olivia Green ’20 said. “Going into this weekend, we were well-prepared and ready to go, but never thought about Sunday until the buzzer went off at the end of Saturday’s game.”
Although they are nearing the end of a long season, the Panthers have not lost steam and are picking it up in practice. “In the past few weeks, people have been giving it their all at practice in order to ensure we’d be ready for game day, and that has definitely paid off,” said Green.
Sunday’s championship game against Tufts was another exciting one for players and spectators alike. “Tufts is a really good team and one of our biggest rivals,” said Erin Nicholas ’21. “They are one of the only teams that plays the same formation as us, so it is usually a tough game because everyone is matched up and marked.” But the Panthers’ focused and intense preparation paid off. “After Emma and Marissa’s perfect execution of our corner play for a goal, we picked up momentum and started coming together as a team. We had a lot more opportunities after the goal,” said Nicholas. “At halftime we talked about the feeling that something clicked on the field which made the game a lot more exciting and competitive.”
Emma Johns ’21 scored the NESCAC Championship-winning goal on a penalty corner, with the help of her teammate Baker, who executed a behind the back pass at the top of the circle. “Winning the NESCAC title two years in a row is an amazing feeling and the team has put in an incredible amount of work to earn the title again,” said Johns. “This weekend showed how competitive the NESCAC is and I think that competition makes this title even more special.”
Middlebury will host the regional rounds of NCAA tournament, taking on the winner of Keene State/SUNY New Paltz on Saturday at 11 a.m.
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(11/01/18 10:00am)
After a decisive victory on Saturday, the field hockey team advances to the NESCAC semifinals, where they take on fifth-ranked Trinity at home.
Middlebury got off to a great start against Colby, scoring three goals in the first half. Less than four minutes into the game, senior Grace Jennings intercepted a pass and charged up the field, blowing by her opponents before finding the back of the net to make the score 1-0. The Mules retaliated shortly after to tie it up, but Meg Fearey ’21 buried a pass from teammate Erin Nicholas ’21 on a penalty corner to regain the lead. About ten minutes later, Marissa Baker ’20 marked her seventh goal of the season to put the score at 3-1 going into halftime.
Colby struck first in the second half, cutting Middlebury’s lead to one goal, but the teams were called off the field immediately afterward due to a weather delay.
“During the rain delay, we talked over the game like we would at halftime,” said Baker. “But the radar wasn’t looking good and we knew were going to have a lot of time to kill, so for an hour and a half we blasted the speakers and had a dance party. On our team, dancing is our way of staying loose and amped.”
Down the hallway, Colby’s speakers died, which led the team to ask the Bowdoin women’s soccer team to join their dance party. The resulting locker-room dance battle made it onto the NESCAC barstool Instagram and now has almost 10,000 views. “I think that’s a really special moment,” continued Baker. “What more can you ask for out of sports?”
Back out on the field, still 35 degrees and raining, Erin Nicholas ’21 marked her 12th goal of the season and Jennings scored for the second time in the match to stretch Middlebury’s lead to 5-2. Meg Collins ’19.5 finished with three saves, while Middlebury dominated shots 19-7 and corners 10-3.
“We were very excited for the start of postseason and the opportunity to play Colby again,” Nicholas said. “Earlier in the season, we played on their home field, a slower field turf, so it was nice to get the chance to play them on our faster AstroTurf. Everyone stepped up and was focused on our team strategy in order to help secure the win.”
Playoffs bring an added level of excitement to the field, when every game could mean elimination. But the approach remains the same. “We knew that on any given day, any team in the NESCAC can win, so we focused on playing our game and maintaining our structure and intensity throughout,” Nicholas said.
If all goes well on Saturday, the Panthers will compete for the NESCAC Championship on their home field on Sunday. In preparation, the team will continue to develop its game in order to be ready for anything. “Our goal is to improve our own game so that we can execute and perform no matter which team we face out on the field,” said Assistant Coach Lauren Schweppe.
Come out to support the defending national champions on Saturday at 11 a.m.!
(10/25/18 9:59am)
With a 3-0 win over Bates on Saturday, Middlebury field hockey clinched the top seed heading into NESCACs next weekend, giving them home-field advantage for the tournament. Sophomore Isabel Chandler scored the first goal of the game, when after just 46 seconds of play she tipped in a hard shot by Marissa Baker ’20. The Panthers took a 2-0 lead at 14:11, when Molly Freeman ’19 found the back of the goal for the eighth time this season. Toward the end of the game, sophomore Erin Nicholas marked another goal to secure the 3-0 win for the Panthers. Middlebury’s defense had a great performance, allowing just four shots total. Of those, only two were on net, and goalie Meg Collins ’18.5 was there to block all the visiting Bobcats’ shots. The homecoming match was the 30th straight win for the Panthers.
“Alumni weekend is always one of my favorite weekends of the fall,” Amanda Bozorgi ’19 said. “It’s so nice to catch up with the field hockey alumni and see the underclassmen on the team get to know and bond with the MCFH women that were here before them.”
On Sunday morning, the alumni battled it out against current players on Peter Kohn Field, as is tradition.
“The annual alumni game is probably the best part of homecoming, especially because our goalies get to try out their stick skills, and Olivia Green [’20] and Sophia Peluso [’20] get to suit up in pads,” Bozorgi said of the weekend.
On Tuesday, Oct. 23, the team travelled to Williams for their final game of the regular season. The hosts came on strong, scoring all four of their goals in the first half. Middlebury fought hard to regain control of the game, but only managed to mark two goals, both scored by sophomore Erin Nicholas. Collins walked away with two saves.
Despite the stumble, the team is excited for playoffs to start on Saturday, playing the number eight seed, Colby, at home at 1 p.m.
“Being number one has a lot of pressure,” Grace Jennings ’19 explained. “But pressure is definitely a privilege that we have earned and one we want to keep. Our opponents will be very good no matter what their record says, and the most important thing to remember now is that every game counts. The score will always be 0-0 at the beginning of the game, and it’s our job to simply get numbers on our side and keep theirs at 0.”
(10/11/18 10:00am)
With family and friends cheering it on, the Middlebury field hockey team extended its streak to 10–0 on Saturday, beating the Tufts Jumbos 2–1 in overtime. The Panthers took the lead after just four minutes of play, when junior Marissa Baker scored as part of a penalty corner. Tufts managed to tie it up about 20 minutes later, also on a penalty corner. The game was incredibly tight for the remainder of regulation time, with Middlebury marking just five shots on goal compared to the Jumbos’ three.
“We spend a lot of time watching film to understand our opponents’ strengths and weaknesses,” said defender Olivia Green ’20. “For Tufts, we knew that they set their press high, meaning they pressured us when we tried to advance the ball from our defense to our midfield. We responded by playing fast, keeping the ball moving and tiring out their forwards by making them run.”
BENJY RENTON/THE MIDDLEBURY CAMPUS
The high-pressure game was the first time Middlebury was forced into overtime, a scenario the Panthers work on a lot in practice. When the final whistle blew, they knew what to do.
“When the clock ran out we got in our huddle and Grace [Jennings] said, ‘this is our ish!’,” explained goalkeeper Megan Collins ’18.5. “We know that OT lends itself to our way of playing — it stretches the field out so that we have more space to keep possession through long passes and gives us an opportunity to play our game.”
The Panthers’ preparation certainly paid off, as sophomore Erin Nicholas found the back of the cage just 1:15 into overtime, for her sixth goal of the season.
“The interesting thing about this game is it was the first time that we played really well and we still had to fight for that outcome,” said senior captain Grace Jennings. “It really challenged things that we thought we had figured out and showed us what else we have to work on moving forward. We realized that there is another level that we have to get in order to accomplish our goals for this season.”
Despite the challenge, the Panthers proved once again what they are capable of when they work as a team. Middlebury also bested Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 4–0 on Tuesday, Oct. 9. Up next, the Panthers will take on Trinity this Saturday, Oct. 13 during Fall Break.
(10/04/18 9:53am)
The Panthers added two wins to their record this week, putting them at 9-0 for the season.
On Wednesday, Sept. 26, Middlebury travelled to Saratoga Springs, N.Y. to face the Skidmore Thoroughbreds on their home turf. Skidmore was the first to strike, capitalizing on a penalty corner to score the only goal of the first half at 22:25. But the Panthers came back strong in the second half, marking five consecutive goals to finish with a decisive 5-1 victory. Molly Freeman ’19, Emma Johns ’20, Danielle Brown ’21, Grace Jennings ’20, and Erin Hogan ’21 (her career first) all contributed to the goal-scoring. Overall, Middlebury controlled the game in shots on goal (25-1) and led penalty corners (16-1).
The game on Saturday, Sept. 29 took place all the way in Waterville, Maine against the Colby Mules. Once again, the Panthers overcame a 0-1 deficit at halftime to come out with a 4-1 win. This time, goals were scored by Marissa Baker ’20, Julia Richards ’20, Erin Nicholas ’21, and Danielle Brown ’21. Behind all the goal-scoring, the team worked together to dig deep and execute their game plan. “Last week’s games definitely tested our team and I believe that we grew a lot as a result of that,” said senior captain Amanda Bozorgi.
“Each game, we learn how to use our depth as a team more effectively,” said fellow senior captain and goalkeeper Meg Collins. “In terms of our lineup, we’re bringing players into different positions that better match their individual skillsets.”
As for that impressive 9-0 winning streak, the team is using it as motivation to stay focused on what’s ahead. “It feels great to have such a strong first half of the regular season, but combined with coming off such a successful season last year it definitely has teams motivated to beat us,” said Collins. “So we just have to work harder every day in practice to continue to improve our game.”
Next up, the Panthers take on Tufts, also undefeated and ranked second in the NESCAC, at home on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. “We’re coming into this week with some things that we need to work on,” said Bozorgi. “But this team is so deep and so adaptable, I have nothing but high aspirations for the rest of our season.”
(09/27/18 10:02am)
The temperatures may be cooling off, but the Panthers are heating up. A huge weekend saw Bowdoin and Babson fall to our team, the top-ranked in the nation, with scores of 4-2 and 2-1 respectively.
Anticipation was high going into Saturday’s game against decades-long rival Bowdoin, but Middlebury remained collected, not allowing a single shot for the first 35 minutes. Offensively, nine of Middlebury’s 14 shots were on goal, compared to three of Bowdoin’s nine attempts. The first goal of the match came early, when sophomore Danielle Brown found the back of the net after a penalty corner, assisted by Kelly Coyle ’20. Three minutes later, Erin Nicholas ’21 beat three Bowdoin defenders to score her third goal of the season and increase Middlebury’s lead to 2-0, which would hold for the rest of the first half. In the last half of the game, Grace Jennings ’19 scored two goals in less than five minutes to keep the Panthers on top.
“Bowdoin is very well-coached and disciplined, so we have to tear their structure apart by out-thinking them and being more creative,” said Jennings on the team’s strategy. “They break down when we change our game plan more than expected because they can’t adjust their structure on the fly.”
On Sunday, fifth-ranked Babson (one of only two teams that was able to beat Middlebury last season) stepped onto Peter Kohn field for the Unite in the Flight Awareness game. Inspired by the team’s motto “Take flight”, the spirit of this game was that no one has to fly alone.
“The team wanted to raise awareness of diseases that are close to our heart, represented by ribbons on our shirts,” explained Meg Fearey ’21. “These specific ribbons represent the fight against Leukemia, Multiple Sclerosis, PTSD, sexual violence, diabetes, brain cancer, lyme disease, Alzheimer’s, ADD, ADHD and breast cancer.”
It was an extremely close match that kept fans on the edge of their seats right until the end. With 4:30 left and the game tied at 1-1 (scored by Middlebury’s Danielle Brown), Nicholas carried the ball past Babson defenders and went top corner to score the game-winning goal.
“It was a lot of fun to be able to play in such a close, exciting game,” said Nicholas. “I think the pressure helped us secure the win because it added intensity to the game. It focused everyone and helped us motivate one another to push through any fatigue.”
Overall, the team’s performance this weekend asserts their authority as top dogs.
“In both games, we could have easily broken down and panicked,” said Jennings. “But at no point were players panicking about the scoreboard or questioning each other. Our confidence in our structure and our teammates only grew this weekend, which will help us moving forward during tougher games when we need to respond with tenacity and trust.”
The Panthers face Skidmore this Wednesday, Sept. 26 and Colby next Saturday, Sept. 29.
(09/20/18 10:04am)
Middlebury extended its winning streak to five games and remains on top of the NESCAC after defeating Amherst and Hamilton this past weekend.
The Panthers took an early lead in Saturday’s home game against Amherst, with Emma Johns ’20 (this week’s NESCAC Player of the Week) scoring two goals in the first eight minutes. Toward the end of the first half, captain Grace Jennings ’19 carried the ball up the left side of the field and sent it toward the net, where Molly Freeman ’19 tipped it in. Jennings set up another goal early in the second half, passing to sophomore Danielle Brown, who scored her fourth of the season.
Amherst initiated a quick comeback, managing to score three goals in less than 10 minutes to make the score 4–3 at 47:08. Responding to the challenge, Johns completed a hat trick just a few minutes later, scoring Middlebury’s final goal of the game. Though Amherst managed to find the back of the net one more time, the Panthers walked away with a 5–4 win.
“Every game is an opportunity for us to learn and grow as a team,” assistant coach Lauren Schweppe ’18 said. “The Amherst game was very competitive and showed us which areas of our game we could improve upon.”
Sunday’s decisive 4–0 win against Hamilton exemplified the team’s ability to adjust quickly. Middlebury posted 12 shots on goal — three times as many attempts as Hamilton. Goalkeeper Megan Collins ’19 stopped all four Hamilton shots, adding another shutout to her record and upping her save percentage to .692.
“Every year we start out with so many unique ingredients, and we are still trying to find out exactly what this team will look like and how we will accomplish our goals,” Jennings said about the ups and downs of the weekend. “But, even now, we are pretty excited about what we have so far and our journey ahead.”
Next up, the team takes on its longstanding rival Bowdoin at noon on Saturday, Sept. 22 at home. Come out to cheer on the Panthers as they battle to keep the top spot in the NESCAC.
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(09/13/18 10:03am)
The returning NCAA Champion field hockey team is off to another strong start, remaining undefeated after three games (10-0 v. Castleton, 4-0 v. Connecticut College, 7-0 v. University of New England). After putting in countless hours of hard work in the classroom and on the field during preseason camp, the Panthers are excited to be back in action. Joining the top-ranked team are five first-year athletes: Joan Vera, Hanna Sullivan, Riley Marchin, Nicole Johnson, Grace Murphy and Grace Harlan. They will be looking to fill the shoes of the star-studded senior class of 2018 — Audrey Quirk, Annie Leonard, Eva Dunphy, Caroline Knapp and Carson Peacock — who won two NCAA Championships during their time at Middlebury.
“The team is looking great so far,” said goalkeeper Meg Collins ’18.5, known for her ability to remain composed under pressure and also for her warm-up dance moves. “We have a 3-0 record so far which is awesome, but we are much more focused on the process of the game and perfecting our way of playing.”
This year’s team is stacked with talent and depth. Grace Jennings ’19, who scored the game-winner in both the 2015 and 2017 National Championships, is one of the few lefties to play college field hockey and is nearly impossible to defend. Amanda Bozorgi ’19, known for her aerial style corner play, brings strong offensive presence while also coming up big in defensive situations. Rounding out the senior class is Molly Freeman, who is great in the circle and contributes a lot of goals on offensive corners as a tipper.
Lauren Schweppe ’18, who graduated last year, now uses her expertise as a two-time National Champion and All-American in her new role as assistant coach. Also new to the program is Rachel Polombo, who comes from an assistant coaching position at Salisbury University. They will be working alongside assistant coach Andrea Way who has spent five years at Middlebury.
Returning for her 18th season is National Coach of the Year, Katharine DeLorenzo. DeLorenzo has led the Middlebury Field Hockey program to five NESCAC Championships and two NCAA Championships. She has been recognized multiple times as NESCAC and National Coach of the Year, and is known for cultivating team cultures rooted in love and excellence. As she noted in a press conference at the end of last season, “We never talk about winning. We just talk about playing.”
Make sure to head down to Peter Kohn Field this Saturday to support the Panthers as they take on Amherst at 11:00 a.m.
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(04/18/18 10:47pm)
Liber: a Latin word that may refer to “book,” or to “liberty” and “freedom.”
A liberal arts education is rooted in the idea that there is freedom in understanding. So, while many consider elite liberal arts colleges a great American success, there is a contradiction in the model; academia explains the world really well, but only to a really small group of people. In other words, scholars’ ideas are often contained in a lockbox to which only intellectuals hold the key. As such, freedom in understanding is only available to those lucky few — an exclusive club that contradicts the “life, liberty and happiness for all” that this nation claims to strive for.
Picture yourself playing Mario Kart. You’re on the Rainbow Road level; the track is colourful, sparkling, and really hard to stay on. There are ten other players, jostling for first position, dropping banana peels to distract others, and searching for speed boosters. To me, this is the world of academia.
Now, picture yourself off the track, drifting in space. You’re floating pleasantly, enjoying the stars around you and confused by the dazzling scene in front of you. The Rainbow Road looks competitive, expensive and inaccessible. This is the world outside of academia. Carts are whizzing by like ideas, accelerating and morphing so quickly that once you understand them, they’ve changed. The thought of merging onto the Rainbow is overwhelming at best, and terrifying at worst. It’s probably better just to stick with what you know: the stars.
Academia does a great job of explaining the world. But it fails to explain it to the world. Instead, academics use flowery and exotic language to make our peers think we know what we’re talking about. As a result, the actual quality of the idea becomes less important than the way it is expressed. Or, the way it is expressed takes priority over the idea itself. This practice builds a layer of insulation around our ideas that demands an extensive vocabulary to break through; it makes the ability to understand — what we call freedom — an exclusive privilege. One of my classmates provided a perfectly ironic example of this while discussing the differences between the effectiveness of visual and written representations:
“A written medium is more easily proliferated to the masses.”
Translation: more people can understand text.
I’m not sure if I agree with the statement itself, but it shows exactly what I’m talking about: her actual point is hidden behind smoke and mirrors — an illusion of knowledge. In other words, we seem to use strong words to protect weak ideas from attack. This happens in classrooms, academic journals and other publications as well. But the jargon and bullshit create a barrier around the ideas themselves. As a student at an elite liberal arts college, I can and should be able to follow a high level of formal reasoning. Yet, I find myself nodding along to arguments from the “other side” simply because they’re so easy to follow! There are no distractions — no bananas on the Rainbow Road — to throw me off. We have to ask, how can a voter — with a high school education who is primarily concerned about tax increases — understand the benefits of public healthcare, if they can’t even understand the words and sentences used to describe them? How does a rancher in Montana get on board with gun control when one ear is fed easy-to-understand talking points from the NRA, and the other hears eloquent reasoning for common-sense gun laws? All that filters through is, “they want to take away my guns!”
To be clear, I am not placing the burden on others to better understand. Rather, it is our duty as educators to better explain. Maybe the real question is, how can we appreciate ideas that are expressed simply? It is us, the academics, that need to learn. We must include and value all perspectives in every debate, regardless of their formality or eloquence.
Maybe the 2016 presidential election wouldn’t have been such a shocker if we realized that winning a vote is not dependent on how eloquently your position is articulated, but on how it is received.