MIDDLEBURY, Vt.— Top-ranked Middlebury overcame a 1-0 deficit with three unanswered goals and held off No. 3 Babson College for a 3-2 victory in a battle of two of the top three ranked field hockey teams in Division III Sunday afternoon at Peter Kohn Field.

With the loss, the Beavers suffer their first setback of the season and fall to 6-1 overall while the Panthers, who have won 14 straight games dating back to last season, improve to 5-0 on the season.

Graduate student Jackie Hill (Franklin, N.H.) and senior Andrea Marguerite (Hopkinton, Mass.) scored goals for the Beavers and grad student Sinead Walsh (Port Elizabeth, South Africa) and junior Berit Sharrow (Denver, Colo) registered assists. Junior Bayla Furmanek (State College, Pa.) made a career-high 13 saves in goal in the setback.

Seniors Katie George (North Kingstown, R.I.), Audrey Lazar (Orchard Park, N.Y.) and Sadie LeStage (Milton, Mass.) tallied goals for the Panthers, and junior Lilly Branka (Medfield, Mass.) recorded an assist. Senior KK Newton (Madison, Conn.) made one save and earned the win in goal.

Babson got on the board first to snap Middlebury's streak of 10 consecutive shutouts dating back to last season. Walsh dribbled the ball from the right side into the circle in the Panthers' end and slid a pass through the Middlebury defense where Hill tracked it down and slipped a shot between the pads of the goalie to give the Beavers a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute of the game.

Less than a minute after an apparent Babson goal that would have given the Beavers a two-goal lead was waved off by the umpire, Middlebury scored the equalizer. Junior Katherine Lantzy (Durham, N.H.) carried the ball from her own 25-yard line all the way down to inside the circle in the Beavers' end of the field and found an open George on the doorstep. Junior Ellie Powers (Bethlehem, Pa.) broke up George's first shot but George flipped a shot past Furmanek to the tie game at 1-1 in the 12th minute.

The Panthers took a 2-1 advantage with less than four minutes remaining in the second quarter when Lazar beat Furmanek off a feed from Branka. The hosts extended their lead to 3-1 midway through the third frame when LeStage put home a shot after Furmanek had made a save on junior Hanna Medwar (Andover, Mass.).

Babson nearly got one back early in the fourth quarter but sophomore Caroline DiGiovanni (Harwich, Mass.) was denied by Newton on a partial breakaway. The Beavers had back-to-back penalty corners in the 56th minute and made the second one count as Sharrow fired a shot from the left side and Marguerite deflected the shot past Newton to pull the Green and White to within one.

The Beavers had one last chance with a penalty corner in the final two minutes but a shot by Sharrow was blocked and Walsh's shot off the block went wide left.

Middlebury finished with a 26-6 advantage in total shots, including 16-3 in shots on goal, and each team took seven penalty corners.

The Beavers return home for the first of three straight home games with a Wednesday encounter against Skidmore at MacDowell Field. Middlebury plays again Saturday at Bowdoin.

GAME NOTES
• Babson is 1-11 all-time against Middlebury in a series that dates back to 1996, with six of the losses coming by just one goal.
• The first Beaver goal was the first surrendered by the Panthers in nearly 645 minutes of play dating back to last season.
• The Green and White became the first team to score two goals against Middlebury in its last 14 games since Trinity defeated the Panthers 2-1 back on October 15, 2022.
• The Beavers are now 3-1 this season against teams from the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC).
• Babson had its streak of 37 straight wins snapped when scoring the first goal of the game, which dated back to the start of the 2021 campaign.