The top-ranked Middlebury women's lacrosse team pulled away from eighth-ranked Franklin & Marshall at the end of the first half, en route to a 22-13 victory in the NCAA Semifinals. With the win, the Panthers advance to the championship game for the second-straight year and will take on #9 Gettysburg on Sunday.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• Kelcey Dion sent a pass from behind the goal to a cutting Anna Spehr who launched the ball over the shoulder of goalie Alyssa Moran for a 1-0 edge with 53 seconds expired.
• While a player up, Sara Ellinghaus picked off a Diplomat pass in the defensive end and raced up the field. She connected with Hope Shue, who sent the ball along the left side of the arc to Maggie Coughlin who found nylon to make it 2-0 with 12:19 left on the clock. 
• Franklin & Marshall halved the deficit (2-1) at the 11:47 mark when Gillian Brennan stormed through several Panther defenders and slotted a low sidearm shot into the bottom right corner of the goal.
• Moran made back-to-back saves on efforts by Spehr and Shue, before Lauren Pittman knotted the contest 2-2 with a shot into the upper right corner with just under seven minutes left in the opening stanza.
• Middlebury responded with three-consecutive goals to make it 5-2. A marker by Caroline Adams was sandwiched around a pair of tallies from Earley.
• Franklin & Marshall's Lane Lambeth halted the run with the final goal of the quarter to cut the lead down to a pair (5-3).
• The teams traded the initial two tallies of the second frame, before Caroline Messer scored twice to push the Panther lead to 8-4.
• While a player down, Lydia Cassily caused a turnover at midfield and sprinted toward the goal with only one defender to beat. Cassily converted her shot to trim the advantage to three (8-5).
• Coughlin, Shue, Earley and Dion each tallied to give Middlebury a comfortable 12-5 lead heading into the halftime break. 
• Franklin & Marshall struck first in the third quarter, as Cassily rolled the ball through traffic and into the goal while a player down, making it 12-6.
• Middlebury answered with a marker by Coughlin sandwiched between a pair from Spehr to increase the advantage to 15-6.
• The Diplomats broke up the scoring frenzy with a tally at 10:20, but Shue forced running time (17-7) just 16 seconds later. 
• Franklin & Marshall mounted a comeback bid late in the third quarter. The Diplomats tallied four-straight goals spanning the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth to pull to within six (17-11) with 13:38 left in the contest. 
• Earley broke the Panther scoring drought, striking just over a minute later and sparking a three-goal run to extend the advantage to 20-11.
• Cassily scored for Franklin & Marshall, before Britt Nawrocki and Jamee Numan each tallied right off the bench for the 22-12 score. 
• The Diplomats closed out the contest with a late marker as Middlebury eased to the 22-13 victory. 

NOTES

• Earley broke the program record for most points in a season, tallying seven in today's win to bring her total to 104. Earley held the previous mark of 99, which she set during the 2022 season. 
• Annie Enrietto eclipsed the 200-career saves mark, making six stops to improve to 38-0. 
• The victory was the program's 75th in NCAA Tournament play against just 18 losses.
• The Panthers will make their second-straight appearance in the championship contest, and are seeking their third-consecutive title (2019, 2022), having not played in 2020 or 2021 due to the pandemic. 
• Middlebury is a perfect 22-0 on the year and is currently riding a 27-game winning streak. The program has also won 29-straight contests on the road dating back to 2019.

The squad has a day of rest on Saturday, before it gears up to defend its title on Sunday at noon.

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE