Middlebury 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. Middlebury held a 31-17 shots advantage in the game, improving to 4-1 on the year. The Panthers return to action on Saturday when they host Colby at 11:00.

Middlebury opened 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 finished.

In the 28th minute, Middlebury earned a penalty corner. Elinore O'Brien and Pam Schulman worked a give-and-go with Schulman making it a 3-1 game. 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 and later netted her fourth of the game. Middlebury added two more goals over the next 20 minutes, emerging with the 8-3 win. 

Cassie Coash made seven saves to earn the win, while Jessica Galatioto made 16 stops for Castleton.