MIDDLEBURY, Vermont ­ Middlebury College midfielder Leah Cumsky-Whitlock scored goals in the 32nd and 89th minutes to lead the host Panthers to a 2-0 win over visiting Amherst College on Saturday, the Panthers' third consecutive win over the Jeffs and their fourth in the last six meetings between the two teams.

During the Jeffs' 11-2-3 campaign in 1999, the only opponent that they couldn't solve was the conference rival Panthers, responsible for both of the Jeffs' two losses, including a 2-1 overtime heartbreaker in the semifinals of the ECAC tournament. The story was the same on Saturday, as Middlebury used a 19-6 shot margin (the largest Amherst deficit since 1996) to hand the Jeffs their first two-goal loss since a 2-0 defeat to Bowdoin College in 1995.

The Panthers opened the game on the offensive, leveling a wave of shots on the Amherst net in the opening 25 minutes. The Jeffs, thanks to solid play from goalie Brooke Diamond (Longmeadow, MA) kept the hosts off the board in the early going, but with Middlebury¹s offensive pressure, it was only a matter of time.

Finally, just into the 32nd minute, Cumsky-Whitlock received a feed inside the 18 from sophomore Meg Bonney (who scored all three of Middlebury's goals against the Jeffs last year) and finished a shot past Diamond to give the hosts a one--goal lead. Middlebury threatened again before halftime, but Diamond posted six of her game-high nine saves in the opening stanza to keep the Panther lead at one.

The second half saw much of the same Middlebury pressure, with the hosts limiting Amherst to only two shots on goal after halftime. The Amherst defense, with Co-captain Meg Riley (Wellesley, MA) leading the way, held off the brunt of the Panther attack, until Cumsky-Whitlock sealed it in the 89th minute. After a possession change in the Middlebury third, Bonney set Cumsky-Whitlock up on a breakaway, which she finished past Diamond to seal the 2-0 win.

With the win, the Panthers improve to 9-1 on the season (6-1 NESCAC), while the Jeffs fall to 5-3-1 (3-2-1 NESCAC), heading into the busiest week of their season. On Tuesday, Amherst returns home to host Tufts University, before a Thursday afternoon home date with the Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors. Saturday, the Jeffs cap a four-game, eight-day stretch with their 11:00 a.m. showdown against arch-rival Williams College, currently the top-ranked team in the nation.