BRUNSWICK

Throughout the second half of Saturday’s women’s lacrosse game at Ryan Field, Bowdoin seemed on the verge of going on a run to make its New England Small College Athletic Conference matchup with Middlebury a nip-and-tuck contest.

But, the Panthers continually answered the Polar Bears, ending with a 15-10 victory in a battle of nationally ranked top 10 teams.

Fourth-ranked Middlebury left with a 7-0 mark, 4-0 in the NESCAC, while eighth-ranked Bowdoin lost for the first time to fall to 5-1, 4-1 in the NESCAC.

“Draw controls hurt us today, that after we scored we didn’t get the next one,” said Bowdoin coach Liz Grote. “Some costly turnovers in the first half gave them the ball back and they answered.”

Middlebury’s Ellen Halle was the catalyst for her team. Coming off a seven-day, four game road trip that included stops in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maine, Halle was pleased with her team’s effort.

“This is a big win, capping off a week against some really good competition,” said Halle, who had five goals and three assists against the Polar Bears. “Bowdoin gave us a great game. It is tough to win these NESCAC games, so this is a big win.”

Middlebury ahead

The Panthers came out strong, taking a 4-1 lead on goals by Emma Kramer, Laurel Pascal (assisted by Liza Herzog), Margaret Souther and Halle. Bowdoin’s lone goal in the opening seven minutes came from the cross of Mackenzie Schleicher, one of her three goals in the contest.

Schleicher’s second tally made for a 4-2 game, but Middlebury claimed a 6-2 advantage on a goal each from Katie Ritter and Kramer (Halle). The Panthers led 9-5 at the half.

After Halle made it a 10-5 contest to open the second frame, Bowdoin scored three of the next four goals. Betsy Sachs, Schleicher and Carolyn Gorajek brought the Polar Bears to 11- 8. Middlebury called a timeout.

“We talked about staying composed and do what we do best,” said Halle. “After every goal it is important to regroup, and today that worked well for us.”

The talk worked as the Panthers responded with three of the next four tallies. Kramer’s third goal and a freeposition shot by Halle gave the Panthers a 13-8 lead, and Halle answered a Jordan Smith goal for the hosts with her final goal with 6:13 remaining for a 14-9 edge.

“We need to make ourselves a little bit better, talk a little bit more on the field to help each other out, something we did for three-quarters of the game,” said Grote, whose squad committed 19 turnovers and held a 14-13 edge in draw controls. “Every time we play the game we want to get better. When we win, we strive to get better. We just need to take care of the ball a little bit more.”

Michaela Colbert and Souther scored two goals for Middlebury. Panthers goaltender Alyssa Palomba had four saves, with Middlebury holding a 29-21 shots advantage.

Smith joined Schleicher with three goals each for Bowdoin, with Gorajek adding two goals and two helpers. Clare McLaughlin picked up two assists. Tara Connolly made 13 saves in the Bowdoin cage. Natalie Moore and Genne Warner each had three caused turnovers.

Bowdoin-Williams

On Sunday, Gorajek became Bowdoin’s all-time leader in career goals by scoring four times to lead the Polar Bears in a 9-6 win over Williams.

Bowdoin (6-1, 5-1 NESCAC) rebounds from their first loss of the season on Saturday to Middlebury to defeat Williams (6-3, 2-3 NESCAC) for the ninth time in the last ten meetings between the schools.

Gorajek led all players with four scores and, with her third goal of the day, established a new school record for career goals, breaking the record formerly held by Bowdoin Hall of Honoree Jill Bermingham. The record of 145 goals had stood since 1986 and was one of the longest-standing goal marks in school history. Gorajek, who upped her season total to 24, now has 147 in her career.

Bowdoin also received a pair of goals and an assist from Sachs while Jordan Smith had two assists. Williams was led by two goals and an assist from Bridget Malicki.

Thanks to a pair of early goals from Gorajek, Bowdoin sprinted to a 4-0 lead after 12:39 of play. Williams answered with three goals over the final 12:25, including two markers in the final 2;00 to close the gap to 4-3 following a score by Hilary Cook just before intermission.

Bowdoin took command early in the second half with four goals to open the frame. Lindsay Picard converted a free position shot to open the run and was followed by Gorajek’s recordbreaker, a goal by Sachs and a score from Megan O’Connor all within a span of 5:35 to give the hosts a 8-3 advantage with under 20 minutes to play.

Williams made a late charge, closing the gap to 8-5 following a goal from Malicki with 11:34 to play, but Gorajek’s final goal of the day pushed Bowdoin’s lead back to four goals two minutes later as the Polar Bears controlled the ball for most of the remainder of the contest.

Connolly made eight saves in the win for Bowdoin, while Erica Nangeroni caused a team-best five turnovers. Picard won four draw controls while Sachs had three draw controls and two caused turnovers. Warner led Bowdoin with four groundballs.

Bowdoin held a 29-16 advantage in shots, 27-17 edge in ground balls and 13-4 margin in draw controls.

The Polar Bears will return to action next Saturday at home against Trinity at noon.