MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—The trio of senior Jane Earley (North Falmouth, Mass.), sophomore Hope Shue (Dover, Mass.) and classmate Maggie Coughlin (Hanover, Mass.) combined for nine first-quarter goals as No. 1 Middlebury College defeated visiting Babson College, 20-5, in non-conference women's lacrosse action on Sunday afternoon at Peter Kohn Field.

With the win, Middlebury opens the season at 1-0 while Babson drops to 0-2 on the year.

Graduate student Emily Curtis (Walpole, Mass.) scored three times and junior Nicole Darveau (Sudbury, Mass.) finished with two goals for the Beavers. Senior Erin Jayne (Merrimac, Mass.) led all players with three assists, sophomore Clare Connolly (Hanover, Mass.) finished with four draw controls, senior Maeve Williams (Hingham, Mass.) registered two caused turnovers and sophomore goalkeeper Kathleen Murphy (Scarborough, Maine) made seven saves and recorded a game-high four ground balls in the loss.

Early scored four times, while Shue, Coughlin and sophomore Anna Spehr (Llyod Harbor, N.Y.) all tallied three goals apiece to lead the Panthers. Fellow sophomore Kelcey Dion (North Andover, Mass.) and junior Abby Hillebrecht (Stafford Springs, Conn.) each dished out two assists, while Early finished with a game-high nine draw controls for the defending national champions. Senior Annie Enrietto (Winnetka, Ill.) and sophomore Gina Driscoll (Orange, Conn.) also combined to make three saves in the victory.

Shue converted a pair of free-position chances and set up another goal to help Middlebury build a 6-0 lead just over five minutes into the contest before Curtis got the Green and White on the board with her first goal of the with 8:00 to go in the opening quarter. Darveau notched her first marker of the day off a feed from senior Anna Katherine Sypniewski (Vero Beach, Fla.) to make it 8-2 at the 4:45 mark, but the Panthers answered four straight tallies to close the first, including back-to-back free position strikes by Earley over the final 35 seconds, to extend the margin to 12-2.

Curtis scored her second goal at 11:38 of the second and opened the scoring in the third quarter with another tally to cut the Beavers' deficit to 15-4. Middlebury closed the period with a pair of markers over the final 3:16 and then notched three straight goals to start the fourth before Darveau closed the scoring with less than a minute to go.

The Panthers outshot the Beavers 33-9 and finished with a 16-10 edge in draw controls and a 13-10 advantage in ground balls.

Both teams return to action on Wednesday as Babson travels to Wesleyan at 6 p.m. while Middlebury visits No. 16 Bowdoin on 5:15 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers are 1-5 all-time against Middlebury.
• Jayne passed both Libby Bryant '05 and Rachel Secrist '14 to move into 10th place on the program's all-time list with 54 career assists.
• Babson did not attempt a free-position shot in Sunday's loss for the first time since a 16-3 win over Smith on April 16, 2016.