MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Junior Megan Fuqua (Medfield, Mass.) scored three first-half goals and four overall and classmate Claire McMichael (Glenside, Pa.) collected three assists as No. 1 Middlebury College registered a 5-1 victory over No. 3 Babson College in a battle of top-five field hockey teams Sunday afternoon at Peter Kohn Field.

With the win, the Panthers remain undefeated at 5-0 while the Beavers suffer their first loss of the season and drop to 4-1 overall.

First-year Anna Bonazzoli (Clinton, Mass.) scored her first career goal for the Green and White, and classmate Madison Tibbals (Gorham, Maine) made a season-high 12 saves in goal in the setback.

Senior Sarah Bona (Randolph, N.J.) also scored for the Panthers and sophomore Emma McCann (Needham, Mass.) added an assist in the win. Junior Izzy Redzic (South Burlington, Vt.) needed to make just one save in goal to record the victory.

Middlebury took control of the game from the get-go, outshooting visitors 5-0 in the opening quarter and taking a 1-0 lead. Fuqua put the Panthers on the board in the ninth minute on a penalty corner, taking a pass from McMichael at the top of the circle and firing a shot from the left side, which went off Tibbals' pads and bounced off a Babson defender's leg and into the back of the net inside the left post.

The hosts pulled away in the second quarter with three goals in an 11-minute span. Fuqua scored again in a very similar fashion on a penalty corner in the 18th minute, taking another pass from McMichael and unleashing a shot from the left side that went inside the right post for a 2-0 lead.

Fuqua completed her natural hat trick on a penalty stroke in the 26th minute, ripping a shot past Tibbals in the lower left corner. Middlebury scored yet again in the 29th minute when Bona's centering pass from the end line to the left of the cage bounced off McCann's stick and Bona buried it to give the Panthers a 4-0 lead at the break.

Babson regrouped and matched Middlebury in the third quarter with four shots each and recording four of the five penalty corners in the frame, the last of which led to a goal. The Beavers were awarded the corner with 4.5 seconds on the clock, and after the initial shot by sophomore Penny Baroni (Dennis, Mass.) was blocked, Bonazzoli kept the Middlebury clear attempt in the scoring zone. She then fired a shot from inside the circle on the right side through traffic into the back of the cage for her first career marker after time had expired in the quarter, cutting the margin to 4-1 heading into the final stanza.

Middlebury finished off the scoring in the 49th minute on another penalty corner. Stationed in her spot on the left side, Fuqua took a pass from McMichael at the top of the arc and ripped a shot past Tibbals for her fourth of the game and eighth of the season.

The hosts finished with a 22-6 advantage in shots (17-2 in shots on goal), and had a 13-4 margin in penalty corners.

The Beavers return home to host No. 7 Tufts on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at MacDowell Field. Middlebury hosts Amherst on Saturday at 1 p.m.

GAME NOTES
• The Beavers have lost nine in a row to Middlebury and are 1-14 all-time against the Panthers in a series that dates back to 1996.
• The five goals were the most scored against a Babson defense since a 5-2 loss to top-ranked Messiah in the NCAA Tournament semifinals on November 19, 2016.
• Babson had its seven-game road winning streak snapped in the loss.