Middlebury College trailed for just 51 seconds and the nationally ranked No. 4 Panthers then held on down the stretch for a 13-11 NESCAC win against the 15th-ranked Hamilton College Continentals at Hamilton's Steuben Field on Wednesday.

The Continentals (6-4, 4-2 NESCAC) had their win streak end at five games. Hamilton dropped back into a tie for third place in the conference standings with Bowdoin College.

Middlebury (8-2, 5-1) moved into sole possession of second place in the NESCAC standings -- one game behind Trinity College. The Panthers were credited with 13 caused turnovers, which helped lead to 22 turnovers by the Continentals.

Hamilton's Casey File '17 tied a career high with four goals and won four draw controls. Nora Klemmer '17 tied a career best with five points on three goals and two assists. Darby Philbrick '18 scored three goals and captured a career-high six draws. The Continentals ended up with a 15-11 advantage in draw controls. Kara Pooley '19 chipped in a goal, an assist and three caused turnovers, and Morgan Fletcher '17 passed out two assists and scooped up eight ground balls. Fletcher leads the team with 10 helpers and 25 points, and File has scored a team-high 16 goals. Hannah Burrall '19 made six of her career-best nine saves in the second half.

Henley Hall led Middlebury with four goals and five points. Emma McDonagh contributed three goals and an assist and Georgia Carroll and Hollis Perticone registered two goals and one helper apiece. Perticone also won five draws. Jenna McNicholas found the back of the net twice and Mary O'Connell distributed two assists. Campbell Goldsmith picked up six ground balls, Delaina Smith caused four turnovers and Kate Furber stopped seven shots.

The second half featured frantic end-to-end action with 15 goals, 32 shots and 27 ground balls. Each team scored a goal while they were down a player due to a yellow card 71 seconds apart early in the half.

The Panthers took an 11-7 lead with 15:20 left when Hall found Carroll for a goal. Philbrick scored a free-position goal 90 seconds later and File pulled Hamilton within 11-9 on an unassisted tally with 8:53 remaining. McNicholas put Middlebury back up by three goals 33 seconds later. File responded with another goal after she picked up the loose ball of a free-position shot that was saved by Furber with 7:27 to go. Philbrick won the ensuing draw control, was eventually awarded a free-position attempt and rifled a shot past Furber for her 14th goal to make it 12-11 with 7:01 left.

After a timeout called by the Panthers, Goldsmith won the draw and O'Connell eventually took a shot that was stopped by Burrall. Taylor Ryan '17 picked up the ground ball for the Continentals but they turned the ball over before they could complete their clear attempt. Perticone scored the important insurance goal that gave Middlebury a little cushion with 4:31 remaining. Hamilton managed just one shot the rest of the way.

Klemmer's goal 25 seconds into the first half put the Continentals ahead. Hall scored consecutive goals and gave the Panthers a 2-1 advantage before File tied the score with 20:48 to go in the half. Carroll put Middlebury in the lead for good with 17:28 left and McNicholas and Hall followed with scores for a three-goal cushion with 12:56 remaining. The Panthers led 6-3 at the break.

Hamilton hosts Tufts University for another conference contest on Saturday, April 8 at noon. The Continentals will honor their seven seniors after the completion of the game.