Castleton, VT - The Castleton State College women's lacrosse team raced out to a 10-5 halftime lead, and staved off a furious Falcon comeback attempt to win 12-11 over Fitchburg State College in New England Women's Lacrosse Alliance (NEWLA) Thursday evening at Spartan Stadium.

A Stephanie Pearce (Shoreham, NY) eight-meter free-position goal with 9:01 remaining in the contest, put the Spartans up 12-8, and proved to be the game-winner as Fitchburg State scored three unanswered goals to close out the game. Kaitlyn Kelley (Pepperell, MA) scored twice, the second coming on a free-position shot, and Amanda Burns (Weymouth, MA) scored her third goal of the game with 1.4 seconds remaining as the Falcons came up just short.

Pearce and Marie VanDerKar (Manchester, VT) scored three goals, while Nicole Adams (Rutland, VT) scored two goals and had two assists to pace the Spartan offense. Angelica Mazzola (Centerport, NY) added two goals, while Elizabeth Haggerty (Centerport, NY) and Aimee Goulette (Baldwinsville, NY) rounded out the Spartan scoring with one each.

Emily Swan (Franklin, MA) had a game-high four goals to lead the Fitchburg State (5-5, 1-2 NEWLA) offense. Burns added three, Kaitlyn Kelley two, Jamie Kelley (Pepperell, MA) one and Carissa Kennedy (Somerset, MA) one to round out the Falcons in the scoring column.

Castleton was seemingly in control heading into the interval, scoring the last three goals of the first half (two from Pearce, one from Adams) to take the five-goal lead at halftime.

In the second half, Fitchburg State, behind some fantastic goaltending from Abbie Brown (Westwood, MA) began to swing the momentum in its favor. Brown turned away four shots in a span of 45 seconds with the Spartans leading 11-7 to keep the Falcons close. On the ensuing possession, Brown's counterpart Lily Derbyshire (Little Compton, RI) made one of her 12 saves on the evening, but Castleton was unable to clear and Kennedy pounced on the turnover, and scored her second goal of the season. Brown finished with 14 saves for the game, nine coming in the second half.

Fitchburg State is back in action April 15 when the Falcons travel to UMass-Dartmouth for a 4:00 p.m. non-conference match-up. Castleton is scheduled to travel to Westfield State Saturday for a 4:00 p.m. NEWLA contest with the Owls.