Courtesy Middlebury Athletic Communications

Box Score

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. - Middlebury won its seventh consecutive NESCAC Women's Lacrosse Championship with a 10-8 win over Colby Sunday afternoon. The Panthers earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and are expected to host an NCAA Regional next weekend on Kohn Field.

In the closest NESCAC final in the history of the tournament, Middlebury came out strong, but we unable to build a big lead early. Kim Walker put the Panthers on the board at 24:35, followed by back-to-back goals from Claire Edelen to make it a 3-0 game at the 17:43 mark.

Libba Cox put Colby on the board with 10:44 remaining, while Kate Sheridan scored with a side-arm shot to make it a 3-2 game at the 6:43 mark. Walker answered with a free position goal for the Panthers, before Courtney Drake brought the Mules within one with a transition goal.

Colby tied the game 3:43 into the second half, before taking their first lead of the game on a goal from Lauren Barrett. Middlebury tied the game at five on Walker's third goal of the game at 22:04. Liza Humes followed at 20:15 with an under-handed scoop shot to give the Panthers a 6-5 lead. Libba Cox answered for Colby before goals from Walker and Katherine Entwisle gave Middlebury an 8-6 lead with 13:05 left to play.

Colby battled back once again as Sheridan scored from the right side at 12:46, followed by Cox 1:25 later to knot the game at eight. Walker scored what would eventually be the game winner as she drove from the left and fired a shot into the far side of the net at the 6:44 mark.

The Panthers slowed down the offense from there, with Walker giving them some breathing room as she cut through the middle and tied a NESCAC tournament record with her sixth goal of the game. Edelen chipped in with two goals for the Panthers, while Humes had a goal and two assists. Blaire Bowie ended the afternoon with 11 saves for Middlebury.

Cox led the Mules with three goals, while Sheridan netted a pair. Catharine O'Brien made 11 saves in goal.

2007 NESCAC WOMEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round - Sunday, April 29 at Higher Seeds
No. 7 Williams 14, at No. 2 Trinity 13 - OT
No. 6 Amherst 13, at No. 3 Wesleyan 5
at No. 4 Colby 10, No. 5 Bowdoin 9

Semifinals - Saturday, May 5 at Middlebury
at No. 1 Middlebury  15, No. 7 Williams 5
vs. No. 4 Colby 10, No. 6 Amherst 8

Championship - Sunday, May 6 at Middlebury
at No. 1 Middlebury 10, No. 4 Colby 8

2007 NESCAC WOMEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP
First Round - Sunday, April 29 at Higher Seeds
No. 7 vs. No. 2
No. 6 vs. No. 3
No. 5 vs. No. 4

Semifinals - Saturday, May 5
at No. 1 Seed - 12:00 p.m./2:30 p.m.

Championship - Sunday, May 6
12:00 p.m.

Format
The top 7 teams in the conference will qualify for the NESCAC Women's Lacrosse Championship.  First round games will be conducted on Sunday, April 29, 2007 with the semifinals and championship games conducted on Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6, respectively.  The tournament champion will receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship. 

Seeding
Seeding will be based on final conference standings of round robin play.  The number one seed will receive a bye in the first round and will host the semifinals and championship game.  The next three seeds will host first round games with the number two seed drawing the number seven seed, the 6th seed will play at the 3rd seed, and the 5th seed will play at the 4th seed.

Pairings
Pairings will be announced Saturday, April 28.

Tie Breaking Procedures
Ties will be broken as follows:

Head-to-head result (if teams play each other more than once during the regular season, the game that appears on the league schedule will be the game that is counted).

If teams tied during the regular season, or there is a 3-way or more tie, the following tie breaking procedure will be used:

• Best record among tying teams, against one another (head-to-head).
• Most conference wins (in games that are part of the conference schedule and count toward league standings).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 4 teams (including all teams at the 4th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against top 8 teams (including all teams at the 8th spot).
• Comparison of results of conference games played against conference teams in rank order.
• Comparisons shall be made one team at a time starting with the highest ranked team.
• If the tie remains after comparing results against the highest ranked team, the results against the next team in rank order shall be used. This process is continued until a winner is determined.
• Coin flip (or similar random action involving all tied teams).

Note: In case of ties among three or more schools, the criteria above will be applied in order until a team is (or teams are) separated.  At that point, the process begins anew (returning to the first criteria) with the remaining teams.  The process is continued until the tie is eventually broken.  In cases where only a random action will break the tie of three or more teams, the random action will be applied to all teams involved in the tie.  For example, if three teams are tied and only a random action (pulling names out of a hat) will break the tie, each name will be pulled and seeded in order of being pulled.  Also, in the event that there are two (or more) groups of teams tied at different spots in the standings and the only criteria left that can be used to break those ties is a coin flip/random action, the coin flip/random action used to break the tie of one group (to put teams in rank order) will not affect the tie breaking procedures of the other group(s) of tied teams.