Courtesy: Southern Maine Sports Information

PORTLAND, Maine – Senior Marie Van Der Kar (Manchester, Vt.) scored a game-high five goals and dished off one assist to lead the Castleton State College Spartans to a 16-8 victory over the University of Southern Maine Huskies in a non-conference women's lacrosse game Sunday afternoon at cold and blustery Memorial Field.

The win was the second straight, and third in the last four games, for the Spartans who improve to 3-2 on the season.  The Huskies dropped their third straight game to slide to 1-5.

The Spartans sported a balanced offense in addition to Van Der Kar as junior Stephanie Paproski (Newtown, Conn.) had three goals and an assist, freshman Sarah Clark (Guilford, Vt.) contributed two goals and two assists, and senior Elizabeth Haggerty (Centerport, N.Y.) added two goals. Starting senior goalie Becki Duszak (Erieville, N.Y.) had four saves before giving way to rookie Ashly Neal (York Beach, Maine) who stopped two shots.

For the Huskies, freshman Rosie Forster (Andover, Mass.) and senior Mary Vaughan (Brunswick, Maine) each had three goals, and sophomore Lauren Santo (Salem, N.H.) accounted for the other two. Sophomore Samantha Kiesel (Lakeville, Mass./Kents Hill) registered 12 saves.

Castleton took a 4-1 lead in the opening 12 minutes of play as Van Der Kar (two), Clark and junior Angelica Mazzola (Centerport, N.Y.) put shots past Kiesel.  Forster scored a pair of goals, sandwiching Clark's second goal of the half, to get the Huskies back within two at 5-3.

Freshman Meaghan Heuer (Wading River, N.Y.) pushed the lead back up to three before Paproski scored twice in the final 10 minutes to give the Spartans an 8-3 advantage at halftime.

The Spartans outscored the Huskies 5-2 over the first 15 minutes of the second half to push the lead to 13-5.  Van Der Kar had two of the five scores while the Huskies could only counter with single goals from Santo and Vaughan.

Vaughan scored a pair of goals seven minutes apart, and Santo tallied her second, to give the Huskies a spark and get back within five.  Haggerty and Van Der Kar ended thought of a Huskies comeback with goals 20 seconds apart inside five minutes to play.

The Spartans dominated the statistics with a 17-9 edge in draw controls and outshooting the Huskies 39-20.

Southern Maine will play Wednesday night (7:00 p.m.) at Bowdoin College.  Castleton State will host in-state rival Green Mountain College on Thursday (4:00 p.m.).