Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/30/23
From Press Release
Defender Erica Barr (Shawnee-NJ grad) collected an amazing seven caused turnovers, five groundballs, and two draw controls to help the No. 1 Middlebury women’s lacrosse capture its third straight NCAA title and ninth overall on Sunday afternoon, downing No. 9 Gettysburg in the national championship.
The Panthers, who completed a 23-0 season, led from wire-to-wire and utilized a strong third quarter to pull away for the 17-9 victory at Roanoke College in Salem, VA.
Barr, a first-team IWLCA All-American, was named to the All-Tournament team.
For Gettysburg, Julie Breedveld (Radnor) had a goal and an assist and Gabi Connor (Haddonfield) scored once.
HIGHLIGHTS
Middlebury grabbed the lead after just 53 seconds of play. Hope Shue slotted her free-position attempt into the bottom-left corner while on the player advantage to make it 1-0.
Niki Mormile doubled the Panther lead with 3:09 elapsed. The attacker dodged multiple defenders as she cut to the middle and fired her shot past Bullets’ goalie Gill Cortese for the 2-0 edge.
Gettysburg responded with a tally at the 10:18 mark. Jordan Basso drove to the right side of the net before bouncing a shot past Panther goaltender Annie Enrietto to make it 2-1.
Middlebury increased the lead to 3-1 with 4:02 remaining in the opening stanza. Susan Rowley received a pass from Anna Spehr and found the back of the net to give the Panthers a two-goal edge at the end of the first quarter.
Shue added another marker after 42 seconds in the second quarter. She freed herself from a defender with a spin move before firing a sidearm shot into the goal to make it 4-1.
Anna Spehr and Jamee Numan scored back-to-back tallies to extend Middlebury’s lead to five, before Shue converted from close-range to complete her hat trick and bring the score to 7-1 with 6:45 left in the first half.
The Bullets closed the second quarter with markers at the 4:44 and 1:33 marks, but Mormile fired a shot into the top-left corner as the halftime buzzer sounded to give the Panthers a five goal advantage (8-3) at the break.
Middlebury continued to pull away to begin the third stanza. Mormile and Caroline Adams each added a marker within the first 2:40 of the stanza to move into a seven goal edge (10-3).
Gettysburg responded with a free-position goal, but two unanswered tallies from Shue increased the Panther advantage to 12-4.
Julia Daly recorded her third goal of the day with 2:28 remaining in the third quarter to cut Middlebury’s lead to seven (12-5).
Jane Earley found the back of the net just over a minute later to restore the Panthers’ eight-goal lead and Shue fired in a free-position strike to make it 14-5 with one frame to play.
Earley drove to the net and slotted a shot into the bottom-left corner to bring the score to 15-5 after 42 seconds expired in the final stanza.
Basso netted a goal for the Bullets at the 10:35 mark, but Shue canceled it out with her seventh goal of the contest to make it 16-6.
The Bullets closed the game with three unanswered tallies, before Emma Inouye fired home a free-position marker with under a minute remaining as Middlebury eased to the 17-9 triumph.
NOTES
Middlebury concluded the season with an unblemished 23-0 record. The 23 wins is a program record, and it is the program’s ninth undefeated campaign.
The Panthers also finished the season riding a 28-game winning streak. The program has also won 30-straight contests on the road dating back to the 2019 season.
Middlebury has won the national championship on nine occasions (1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2016, 2019, 2022, 2023). The title is the program’s third consecutive, as the team did not compete in 2020 or 2021.
The Panthers have won 15-consecutive NCAA Tournament games and improve to 76-18 all-time in the postseason.
With seven goals today, Shue broke the Middlebury single-season record for tallies in a season with 83. This was the fifth time this year that Shue has scored seven markers in a single game.
This was the 12th meeting between the two programs. With the victory, the Panthers hold a 9-3 advantage in the all-time series.
Shue was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, while Earley, Adams, Barr and Shue were all named to the NCAA All-Tournament Team.
