Castleton, Vt. – The seventh-ranked Middlebury Panthers scored four times in the opening 35 minutes and kept the Castleton offense at bay for the first 60 minutes as they finished with an 8-3 victory on Wednesday evening at Spartan Stadium.

Castleton finished the contest with 17 shots compared to 31 for Middlebury, and held a 9-8 advantage in penalty corners as the Spartans dropped to 4-3. Panthers improved to 4-1 with the win. 

Middlebury led off the scoring 2:42 into the contest as Bridget Instrum found Katherine Theiss in front for the goal. Just two minutes later Theiss returned the favor as she dished it to Instrum to make it 2-0. 

Castleton put on pressure and eventually scored in the 20th minute. Kristy Pinkham ripped a shot from just inside the shooting circle that was saved, but Rachel Preusser was right in front. She collected the rebound and with her back to the goalie made a quick move before depositing the ball to the far side of the net. 

In the 28th minute, Middlebury earned a penalty corner. Elinore O'Brien took the corner and hit it to Pam Schulman, who dished it back to O'Brien before receiving the ball back and scoring the goal. Instrum added a goal at 32:32 for the 4-1 lead at the break. 

Instrum recorded her hat trick 3:15 into the second half to extend the Panther lead to 5-1. Middlebury added three more goals over the next 20 minutes to push its advantage to 8-1. 

In the 61st minute, Maria Stern made it 8-2 as she scored off a pass from Blake Wardwell. Brynn Cayia concluded the scoring just under two minutes later, as she took a feed from Annie Towslee off a penalty corner to make it a five-goal final. 

Junior Jessica Galatioto was solid in net, making 16 saves while allowing eight goals, but took the loss. Cassie Coash made seven saves to earn the win. 

Preusser's first goal on the day gave her 70 for her career, tying Kealy Chipman's school record of 70. Her three points gave her 169 in her career, setting a new program scoring record. 

Castleton returns to action this Saturday when the Spartans travel to face Thomas at 1 pm.