Middlebury women’s lacrosse honors graduating seniors

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (WCAX) - Middlebury College held its graduation ceremony on Sunday, but three members of the Class of 2023 were a little busy that day.

Senior captains Jane Earley, Erica Barr, and Annie Enrietto got their chance to be honored Tuesday, in what has become an almost annual tradition for the Panthers women’s lacrosse program. Those three missed the full graduation ceremony because they were down in Salem, Virginia, capturing the Panthers’ ninth NCAA title in program history and third in the last three completed seasons.

Family, friends, administrators, coaches, and teammates were on hand to see the three Panthers earn their degrees, taking some pictures with their caps and gowns...plus those national championship trophies.

It was a long road to this point, especially for Earley and Barr, who had to take a full year off from school during COVID to even get the chance to play this season. But they say they wouldn’t trade their experiences.

“When Covid hit, I took a year off and waitressed for an entire year just so that I could come back and be on that field this year,” Earley said. “It means everything to me, we made huge sacrifices to be able to do that. Again, it’s a dream come true.”

“My emotions are kind of all over the lot at the moment,” Barr added. “Just very overwhelming feelings, joy, gratitude, it’s just been an incredible ride. And given that we lost two seasons in the middle of our college experience, it’s just been so nice that we could cap off with two really incredible seasons with each other.”

“We were able to come together so well because we all genuinely care about each other, both on and off the field, which I believe makes a difference,” Enrietto said. “You could see that in our play how much we truly wanted to support each other. And whenever one of us made a mistake, we always had each other’s backs, which I felt really carried us through.”

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