Five Middlebury goals over a stretch of 14:37 in the opening minutes of the game, highlighted by a hat trick from Molly Freeman, propelled Middlebury to a 6-1 win Tuesday at St. Lawrence on North Country Field at Hall-Leet Stadium . The fourth-ranked Panthers (7-1) return to action Saturday when they travel to #16 Tufts for a noon start.

St. Lawrence (2-7) fell behind early as Middlebury (8-1) scored on its first penalty corner of the night. Freeman picked up a loose ball and scored from five yards out to open the scoring at 3:19. She added the next two goals for her second three-goal effort in the last three games, giving the Panthers a 3-0 lead 11:07 into the contest. Freeman now has eight goals in her last three games and leads Middlebury with 10 scores.

The visitors stretched the lead to 5-0 a little more than five minutes later with Bridget Instrum's fourth of the year and Pam Schulman's seventh in a span of 1:40. The Panthers took that five-goal lead into the halftime intermission.

With just over 10 minutes elapsed in the second half, Maize Rosenheimer got the Saints on the scoreboard. She finished off a flurry of St. Lawrence shots from close range knocking home her first goal of the season to make the score 5-1.

The Panthers added a late goal when Carson Peacock found the back of the cage for the first time in her career at 64:03.

Middlebury held an advantage in both shots (35-8) and penalty corners (17-5). Panther goalkeeper Emily Miller finished with four saves, while Kim Haab was credited with 17 stops for the Saints.