Middlebury, Vt. - The Colby Women's Lacrosse team's impressive season came to an end on Saturday, May 6th, when they traveled to Middlebury for a NESCAC semifinals matchup. Despite their best efforts and a hard-fought game, the Mules fell 20-6 to the top-seeded Middlebury Panthers. This loss marked the end of an amazing win streak for Colby this season.
The Panthers dominated the game, scoring 11 goals in the first quarter alone, making it difficult for the Colby attack to find the back of the net. The Middlebury defensive unit put on a strong performance, leaving the Colby defense struggling to keep up. Despite this loss, the Colby team played with great effort and determination, living up to their ranking in Division III.
Middlebury took an early lead of 4-0 but Colby managed to reduce the gap to 4-2 with goals from
Ally Franz and
Annie Eddy. However, the Panthers responded with a run of seven goals to close out the first quarter. Despite two goals from
Julia Jardina and
Kailey O'Neill, Colby was unable to close the gap on the early lead of the Panthers, leaving them trailing 15-5 at halftime. In the second half, Middlebury extended their lead to 18-5 and Colby managed only one more goal from Franz before the Panthers closed out the game with two more goals, ending the match with a final score of 20-6. The Mules had a total of 11 ground balls during the game, and their goalies
Jillian Kane and
Sarah Hearns combined for 8 saves.
With this final score, the Middlebury Panthers, seeking their 11th title, will advance to the conference final facing Tufts. Although the Mules fell short this time, there is no doubt that they have lived up to their No. 12 ranking in Division III Lacrosse and will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in the future, under the guidance of Head Coach
Karen Henning and Assistant Coaches
Kelsey Howard and
Ari Cambio.
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