Box Score Recap courtesy of Middlebury College
MIDDLEBURY, VT – Trailing 4-3 with just under four minutes left in the opening half, Middlebury put together a 9-1 run over a span of 20:19 on its way to a 14-10 victory over Tufts in a NESCAC Women's Lacrosse Quarterfinal game on Kohn Field.
The second-seeded Panthers (15-1) will meet third-seeded Amherst next Saturday at top-seeded Trinity, while the host Bantams will battle fifth-seeded Bates. Tufts (9-7) will wait over a week to see if they get an at-large berth into NCAA's.
Tufts (9-7) jumped on the scoreboard with a pair of free-position scores. Brigid Bowser fired a shot into the bottom-left corner at 23:14, while Kate Mackin doubled the lead with an attempt that found the upper-left portion of the Panther net with 20:46 showing on the clock.
The score remained in favor of the 16th-ranked Jumbos until 16:02 when Chrissy Ritter tallied on a free-position shot that found the left side of the net. A little more than a minute later, Bridget Instrum cut down the left side and scored her first of the game on a bouncing shot from six yards out to tie the game at 2-2.
Megan Toner put the Jumbos in front with a score that tucked inside the left post at 13:51, but Instrum recorded her second of the game to knot the score at 3-3 at the 10:03 mark. The contest remained deadlocked for more than four minutes until Tufts' Caroline Ross tallied a free-position goal to the bottom-right corner of the net with 5:47 left in the opening half.
Sixth-ranked Middlebury closed the stanza with four-consecutive goals. Laurel Pascal started the spurt for the Panthers at 3:43 with her first of the game following a failed Jumbo clear, while Hollis Perticone gave the hosts the lead for good at 5-4, muscling toward the crease and bouncing a shot past Tufts' goalie Audrey Evers. Megan Griffin scored at the 1:34 mark and also with four seconds left for Middlebury, as the Panthers took a 7-4 edge into the halftime break.
Out of the intermission, Ross tallied her second of the game at the 28:58 mark when she fired a free-position shot into the upper corner, pulling the Jumbos to within two (7-5). The Panthers recorded the game's next five goals, including the initial three on free-position tallies from Instrum, Pascal and Emma McDonagh. Instrum scored the final two goals of the run for the Panthers, giving her five in the game and 47 for the season. The final goal for Instrum came at the 13:24 mark, rolling off a defender and using her speed to turn the corner with a low shot into the net for a 12-5 Middlebury lead.
The Jumbos responded with a pair of goals just 14 seconds apart on Bowser's second free-position score of the game at 12:45, while Hedy Veith won the ensuing draw control and raced down the field and finished into the top-left corner.
Perticone scored her second of the game on a nice feed from Alli Sciarretta a little over a minute later, while Mary O'Connell gave Middlebury a 14-7 edge at 9:08 on a pass from the goal by Griffin. Tufts' Dakota Adamec, Caroline Kingsley and Bowser each scored over the final nine minutes to make it a 14-10 decision.
Instrum led the Panthers with five goals, while Pascal (2-1-3), Perticone (2-1-3) and O'Connell (1-2-3) each had three-point contests. Perticone tacked on a team-best five draw controls, while Ritter had a goal, an assist and a game-high four caused turnovers as well as four ground balls.
Bowser paced the Jumbos with three goals and an assist to go along with a game-high six draw controls, while Ross tacked on two goals and Adamec had a goal and a helper.
Katie Mandigo (7-1) tallied a season-best eight saves and scooped up four ground balls for the Panthers. Evers (9-7) took the loss with nine saves and four ground balls for the Jumbos.
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