RUTLAND, Vt. - The Spartans struggled to find their offense on Tuesday evening and dropped a 4-0 decision to visiting Williams College at Spartan Arena.
Castleton managed just seven shots through the first two periods, before hamming 13 in the final 20 minutes. The Ephs, meanwhile, did all of their damage in the final 21 minutes of action to improve to 7-7 on the year. The loss drops the Spartans to 6-8 on the season and marks the first time in two months that the team was shut out.
Williams came out the aggressor, putting ten shots on freshman goalie Paula Stephens (Seattle, Wash.) before the Spartans even managed one on freshman Chloe Billadeau (Chaska, Minn.). However, Castleton managed to get a few good looks at the end of the period, despite being outshot 12-3 in the first 20 minutes.
The Spartans looked like they would get out of the second period unscathed, however a late penalty came back to haunt them as the Ephs scored the game's first goal with just 15 seconds remaining in the period. Senior Kristen Tubbs (Garden City, N.J.) put it over the shoulder Stephens and into the back of the net for the power play goal off assists from Cristina Bravi (Montreal, Que.) and Gabrielle Vukasin (Princeton, N.J.).
The final period was all Williams as they added to their lead at the 8:10 mark of the third. Vukasin put home the puck in the midst of a scrum in front of the net to increase the Ephs' lead to 2-0.
Aimee Dennett pushed the lead to 3-0 just over a minute later on a wrister from the right circle which nicked a piece of Stephens' pads before finding the back of the net. Sophomore defenseman Ally Ensor (Sugar Land, Texas) put the finishing touches on the scoring with 7:05 remaining, as she went five-hole from the left point to make it a 4-0 contest.
Stephens finished with 26 saves, though pulled after giving up her fourth goal and was replaced by freshman Kristi Holt (Willington, Conn.). Holt made five saves in the game's final seven minutes. Billadeau, meanwhile, made 16 stops in net to earn the shutout victory.
Castleton returns to the ice on Friday evening when the team hosts Holy Cross at 7 p.m.
