Wome's Lacrosse Falls to Castleton, 17-14

Box Score

CASTLETON, Vt. -- The Castleton State College women’s lacrosse team earned their first win over Bridgewater State College as the Spartans downed the Bears, 17-14, in a key New England Women’s Lacrosse Alliance (NEWLA) matchup on Saturday afternoon at Spartan Stadium.

Nicole Adams (Rutland, VT) and Stephanie Pearce (Shoreham, NY) both scored four goals and dished out one assist to lead the Spartans who improve to 6-3 overall on the season and 2-0 in the NEWLA. The Bears even their record at 4-4 overall and fall to 0-1 in conference play.

Marie VanDerKar (Manchester, VT) added three goals, Stephanie Paproski (Newtown, CT) and Elizabeth Haggerty (Centerport, NY) scored two markers and Angelica Mazzola (Centerport, NY) and Kristen Rochler (Shoreham, NY) netted one a piece for Castleton.

Jenny Jones (Framingham, MA), Shannon Manning (Framingham, MA) and Kristin White (Pelham, MA) led Bridgewater St. offensively finding the back of the net three times each.  Jones also dished out a pair of assists while Manning notched one helper.

With her three markers, Manning tied Laura Swart (2000-2003) as the Bears’ all-time leading goal scorer with 188.

Courtney Lennon (Medfield, MA), Patricia Maloney (Walpole, MA) pitched in with two goals a piece while teammate Katie DeMaio (Port Jefferson Station, NY) netted one goal for the Bears.  Lennon moved past Susan Larson into seventh place on BSC's all-time scoring list as she now has 175 points in her career.  Larson tallied 174 points from 1984 to 1987.

Castleton goaltender Rebecca Duszak (Erieville, NY) made 10 saves in net while Bridgewater State netminder Meghan Griffin (Billerica, MA) stopped 13 shots.

The Bears offense jumped out to an early 3-0 lead as Manning, Lennon and Maloney netted markers exactly three minutes apart from each other with Manning scoring the game’s first goal at 27:46.

Mazzola responded for Castleton at 23:05 beating Griffin from point-blank range on a nice feed from Adams to make it 3-1.

Bridgewater State answered with back-to-back goals from Jones who sniped a shot into the top-corner over Duszak and Maloney notched a marker for a 5-1 cushion.

The Spartans cut the gap to 5-4 as VanDerKar, Adams and Pearce scored three-straight goals including a free position shot by Pearce to cap the scoring run.

With 39 seconds left in the half and the scored tied at six-all, White canned a free position shot past Duszak to send the Bears up at half 7-6.

Castleton came out firing in the second stanza with three-straight goals spearheaded by the play of Paproski. The sophomore midfielder ripped a shot past Griffin to net the Spartans first goal in the run and set up Haggerty in the front of the net for her 14th of the season at 27:21 to take a 10-8 lead.

Momentum switched gears again, as it did all game, as the Bears responded powerfully with four-straight goals. Manning scored twice and assisted on another during that span to give Bridgewater a 12-10 advantage.

After a yellow card was assessed to Adams, Castleton scored three goals down an attacker including two free position attempts and a VanDerKar goal at 19:25, her 30th of the season.

Adams helped put the game to rest down the tail-end of the half scoring three of her four goals during that stretch.

Castleton held a 35-33 shot advantage for the game, won draw controls 17-13 and went 9-11 in clear attempts in the second half to secure the win.  Bridgewater struggled in free position opportunities as the Bears converted on just three out of nine attempts.

The Spartans return to action on April 8, at home, against NEWLA opponent, Fitchburg State at 6:00 p.m. The Bears play host to MIT on Monday afternoon in a 4:30 p.m. non-conference match-up.