MIDDLEBURY — There’s no shortage of foes who would like to see the four-year reigning NCAA Division III championship Middlebury College women’s lacrosse team dethroned, particularly after the No. 1 seed dismantled two top-20 opponents in NCAA playoff games this past weekend.

Going into the 2026 championship weekend, the three teams who will have a shot at ending the Panthers’ undefeated 2026 season are No. 2 Salisbury, No. 3 Wesleyan and No. 4 Tufts.

All four have more than a bone to pick with the Panthers.

This week the 2026 NESCAC champion Middlebury College women’s lacrosse team will head to Rochester, N.Y., to compete in a fifth straight NCAA Final Four. That’s after they steamrolled Rowan University, 21-4, in a third round game in Middlebury on Saturday, and in a Sunday quarterfinal game sent The College of New Jersey back to the Garden State with a season-ending 19-4 loss on their record.

“I think it shows that our team is really focused on, you know, our goal, which is to compete in the final four and to play our best,” Middlebury Coach Kate Livesay said of the message the two blowout wins send to the others in the coming round.

“It’s not just about winning, it’s about being clean with our execution. It’s about shutting down the looks that we want to shut down. So, I think this complete effort just shows that we’ve got a team that’s really dialed into the details and really wanting to separate in every moment.”

First getting a shot at the Panthers are the Jumbos, the 2025 NCAA runners-up, on Friday. Middlebury and Tufts last played in Medford, Mass., at the end of March. The Panthers narrowly won, 11-10.

In the other semifinal game, Salisbury will play Wesleyan, the 2026 NESCAC runners-up.

The road ahead looks rockier than it has since mid-season when the Panthers held onto their undefeated season twice by one goal — once against Tufts and once against Wesleyan. And like Middlebury, Salisbury has an undefeated 2026 season to defend.

The Panthers have proven prolific in coming out of close games victorious.

The team held onto their undefeated season with a last second, Hail Mary shot that resulted in a 5-4 victory over Wesleyan in early April. At the end of the month they overtook Tufts 11-10 in a regular season meeting.

And then in early May the Panthers went on to defeat the Cardinals 7-5 in the NESCAC championship game.

Last year’s NCAA title weekend was especially hard fought. The Panthers won a 13-12 overtime semifinal against Colby, and then beat Tufts,10-9, for the title.

The three championships before that looked more like this last weekend did on the Peter Kohn Field.

In 2022, the Panthers defeated Gettysburg 18-5 in the semis and Tufts 13-5 in the final.

In 2023 they defeated Franklin and Marshall 22-13 in the semis and Gettysburg 17-9 in the final.

And in 2024, they defeated Franklin and Marshall 15-9 in the semis and Salisbury, the 2021 NCAA champions, 16-5 in the final.

Livesay said it’s hard to say what separates past successful Panther teams from the 2026 iteration.

She pointed to strong leadership, dedication and selflessness as three qualities that have defined this year’s team.

“And there’s a really competitive underlying tone to this group,” she added.

“They have a purpose out here, and it’s to play well and to win, and so it’s a really fun combination as a coach.”

That drive was evident in the Panthers’ 21-4 win on Saturday. Middlebury scored nine goals in the first quarter, and only allowed Rowan one.

Middlebury’s 21 goals were netted by 10 different Panthers.

SUNDAY VS. TCNJ

The same was true the following day against TCNJ, a squad that, like today’s Panthers, was once the team to beat. The Lions won NCAA championship in 1985, and between 1991 and 1996 won six straight titles.

They would have been crowned a seventh time in a row had Missy Foote’s 1997 Panthers not stepped in and swiped the title that year.

With 13 total NCAA championship wins, and six consecutive, TCNJ is the only D-III team to hold more than the Panthers’ 11 total, and four straight tournament titles.

On Sunday, Middlebury reminded TCNJ that its day is well past.

At first, it seemed like the Lion defense was going to prove more challenging for the Panthers.

Just 45 seconds into the game, a Panther shot went off the post. A minute later, the Lion defense quickly crashed during a Panther free position, preventing a shot. Then a TCNJ defender intercepted the ball.

Then senior defender Caroline Messer sparked an 11-goal run for the Panthers.

She intercepted the ball in the Panthers’ defensive third, sprinting to capture a Lion pass at the top of the arc. Messer ran the ball through the neutral zone, and got a pass off to senior Haley Hamilton on the other side of the restraining line. Hamilton passed to sophomore Siobhan Colin for a close range shot that put the Panthers on the board.

Less than 40 seconds later, from the top of the arc, senior co-captain Caroline Adams hit Hamilton cutting into the 8 meter from the left. Hamilton got a quick shot off that was good for a second Middlebury goal.

Five minutes into the first, senior co-captain Skylar Lach scored a third for her team. Adams got off a pass from her post at the top of the 12-meter, this time finding Lach on the goal line to the left of the net. Lach ran the ball across the net and popped in a close range shot.

Maddie Ackerman made it 4-0. While running into the 8-meter from the top of the arc, first year Parker Hanson got a pass off to the junior, who scored from right in front of the net.

Lach had another with just under nine minutes left in the quarter, this one assisted by Hanson.

Adams got her first goal of the game after carving a seemingly non-existent lane from the top of the arc to the front of the net for a close range shot, making it 6-0.

With seven minutes left, Hanson assisted a third goal, this time getting the ball to junior Kendall Coyne, who scored from close range.

Then with about two minutes to go, Coyne assisted first year Maggie Spehr, who was waiting in front of the net for a pass. Her goal was the Panthers’ eighth.

Sophomore Maeve Lee scored Middlebury’s ninth and final point of the first quarter. She found a lane in for a close range shot.

The Panther defense wasn’t tested until the final minute of the first quarter. Given the light load so far, they were ready. as they have been all season.

As they have all season, the group moved as a unit in front of the frame, clogging up the middle and making it impossible for the Lions to sneak through. All that TCNJ could manage was a weak shot that was an easy save for junior goalie Elizabeth Savage.

The Panthers got on the board twice more in the second to make it 11-0 before the Lions broke through. TCNJ managed two goals before half.

Going into the third quarter, the score 11-2, Middlebury put away another five goals, and TCNJ just one, bringing the score to 16-3.

Scoring in the final quarter was three Panthers, one Lions, bringing the final accounting to 19-4.

DOMINANT DEFENSE

The Panthers score a lot of goals. But they also don’t allow many.

The Sunday quarterfinal was the third game in a row that the Middlebury defense had allowed only four goals — 12 goals against in three NCAA tournament games. Wesleyan has allowed 15, Salisbury 18 and Tufts 24.

Across their three tournament games, the Panthers have also only allowed a single first quarter goal, and they haven’t allowed more than three in a first half.

“This year our coach threw a new defense at us,” junior defender Lucy Bishop said.

“And so it was just sort of learning how to be cohesive as a unit together, you know, learning new plays and how to work with a completely new group. But I think everyone shows up every day and puts in the work and is always looking to get better and looking to do individuals with coaches to really improve and nail their position down.”

She added, “At the end of the day it’s just the communication that sets the bar high.”

On the rare occasion that an opposing team manages to find a lane through Bishop, Messer, senior Lauren Giuriceo and sophomore Macy Sweeney, they and their Panther teammates are ready to get a deflection, or strip the ball from their opponents.

“Caroline Messer and Macy Sweeney … they are literally at the doorstep of our defense. They’re the first people you see, and then everybody around them has just like elevated, and it’s been really special to watch,” Livesay said of her defense.

“Caroline Messer is one of the best defenders I’ve ever coached. She is outrageously fast, and just has super instincts.”

In addition to Messer’s confidence driving the Panther defense this season, Livesay said the core four were also aided by a sense of readiness from others.

“One of the things you’re proud of as a coach is that when people who haven’t had the chance to play get the chance and show they’re ready,” she said.

“It means they’re developing every year, so we’re really proud of the fact that they were all ready and confident to do something special this year.”