The ninth-ranked Middlebury women's lacrosse team picked up a 15-8 road win at Wesleyan on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers (3-1, 2-1) jumped out to a 6-1 lead and never looked back in the victory. Middlebury returns to action next Saturday at fifth-ranked Bowdoin.

The Panthers got four goals each from Katie Ritter, who also had an assist for a five-point game, and Laurel Pascal. Ritter now paces Middlebury in scoring with 15 points on 10 goals and five assists. Pascal is right behind with 12 goals and two assists for 14 points.

Middlebury jumped out to that 6-1 advantage with 10:16 left in the first half as Ritter netted a pair while Pascal added a goal along with goals from Hollis Perticone, Bridget Instrum and Alli Sciarretta. Wesleyan had its best run with three-straight goals to narrow the gap to 6-4 at the 2:21 mark with Liana Mathias and Meredith Smith joining Julia Black in the scoring department. Smith ended the game as high scorer with six points on three goals and three assists. She leads the Wesleyan team with 15 points as she tallied the Cardinals' first goal.

A 3-0 Middlebury run to end the half pushed the difference to 9-4 and a 5-1 start to the second half made it 14-5 with 14:00 to go.  Wesleyan got three of the final four markers to make it a seven-goal differential at the final horn.

Perticone contributed four points to the Panther cause with two goals and two assists, pushing her seasonal total to 10 points. Mathias ended the contest with a hat trick for Wesleyan.

Shots were nearly even in the game as Middlebury held a slim 24-23 edge but the Panthers were a bit more accurate on the day, hitting the net 19 times while Wesleyan put 15 shots on cage. Middlebury collected 15 draws to 10 for Wesleyan, while the Cardinals had an 18-14 margin on ground balls.

Each team used two goalies in the outing.  Panther starter Madeleine Kinker turned aside seven shots while allowing five goals in her 51:15 between the pipes. Alex Freedman gave up the last three Wesleyan goals. Cardinals' starter Nina Labovich picked up four saves in 53 minutes of work with 14 goals against. Grace McCann yielded the last Middlebury goal.