MIDDLEBURY, Vermont – Second-ranked Middlebury utilized a hat trick by Bridget Instrum and defeated fifth-ranked Ursinus on Sunday afternoon by a 5-1 score in an NCAA Regional Final on Kohn Field. The Panthers advance to the national semifinals for the sixth time in program history, while the 19 victories this fall matches a program record set back in 2003. The Panthers will meet fourth-ranked The College of New Jersey on Saturday in the first national semifinal on the campus of Washington & Lee in Lexington, Virginia, while top-ranked Salisbury and third-ranked Bowdoin will meet in the other game. Ursinus concludes its season at 17-4.
In the first half, Ursinus came out of the gate quickly with a pair of shots in the first minute. Middlebury goalie Emily Knapp was up to the challenge on both scoring attempts, kicking away each shot. The momentum slowly turned the way of the Panthers, as the hosts tallied the first goal of the game in the 19th minute. A player down following a yellow card, Alyssa DiMaio worked her way down the left side of the field, sending a hard cross to the middle. That pass found the stick of Instrum, who made one quick touch and put the ball into the right side of the cage.
Just 5:36 later after the ball went out of play, Middlebury's Catherine Fowler took the resulting restart and sent a rocket from the sideline to the stick of Instrum, who was positioned in front of the cage. Instrum spun to her right and positioned her attempt into the bottom right corner of the cage for a 2-0 Panther lead at 24:09.
The score remained a two-goal Middlebury advantage until just under five minutes gone in the second stanza. Instrum gathered an errant pass on the left side about 30 yards away from the cage. She drove down the left side and completed her hat trick with a hard shot into the lower left corner for her 11th goal of the season.
At 44:14, Pam Schulman put the Panthers up by a 4-0 score. Schulman was the recipient of a nifty pass off the stick of Olivia Jurkowitz, who drove down the right side. She worked her way toward the middle and found a well-positioned Schulman, who calmly tapped in from point-blank range.
Just over a minute later, the Bears had a great scoring chance turned away. Megan Keenan sent a perfect shot from the right side six yards out that was headed toward the back of the cage. However, Middlebury's Jillian Green was there and kept Ursinus off the board with a defensive save.
The action continued with an end-to-end pace for the ensuing 10 minutes. Middlebury recorded its fifth goal when Fowler worked her way toward the middle of the field, and sent a hard cross that was deflected into the cage off the stick of Green at the 55:07 mark.
Ursinus got on the board 59 seconds later and broke up the shutout. Danielle Stong tallied her 20th goal of the season when she laced a shot that hit off Knapp's right pad and went into the cage. The Bears had a few scoring chances in the final minutes, but Knapp tallied three of her five saves in the final 8:06 as the Panthers were a player down due to a yellow card.
Middlebury held a 15-7 shots advantage in the game and a 16-5 edge in penalty corners. Knapp improved to 19-1 in front of the cage for the Panthers, while Danielle DeSpirito (17-4) was credited with seven stops.