Bangor, Maine – In a battle for first place in the North Atlantic Conference, Castleton struck first, taking a 3-1 lead, before five straight Husson goals proved to be the difference as the Eagles held on for the 6-5 victory on Sunday afternoon. 

The defeat snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Spartans as they fell to 14-3 on the season and 8-1 in the conference. Husson, meanwhile, also improved to 8-1 in the NAC and 10-7 overall.

Kara Poirier led the way for the Eagles, scoring two goals with an assist. She earned the helper just under two minutes into the game feeding Mariah Arno for her fifth goal of the season at 1:53 for the 1-0 lead. 

Castleton stormed back, caging their first less than a minute later as reigning NAC Player of the Week Blake Wardwell (Bridgewater, Vt.) scored on the hookup with Mercedes Maltbie (Warrensburg, N.Y.) to even the game. 

Less than two minutes later, Kealy Chipman (Bellow Falls, Vt.)  fed Rachel Preusser (Craryville, N.Y.) for the second Spartan tally. Castleton then made it 3-1 by way of Chipman once again, who put away a ball in front of the net after Husson keeper Maicee Gustin turned away her first attempt.

Neither team scored until Britt Mellow scored her second on the year to make it 3-2 with just under five minutes remaining in the half. Poirier tied it up before the half, scoring in front of the cage off a pass from Sabrina Vaillancourt.

Both teams came out of halftime slow; however, it was Husson once again breaking though, as Poirer gave the Eagles the lead in the 46th minute. Chrissy Larrabee joined in five minutes later scoring on yet another pretty goal set up by Amanda Stubbs to push the lead to 5-3. 

Vaillancourt finished the scoring run just over a minute later. Emily Child fed Husson's leading scorer for her 20th goal of the year, capping a streak of five unanswered goals for the Eagles. 

The Spartans responded, scoring their fourth goal of the contest in the 58th minute.  Preusser caged her second goal of the afternoon to close the gap to two. 

Castleton played spirited hockey in the closing minutes reeling off five shots and earning three penalty corners. The Spartans final goal came a few moments too late as Wardwell with just one second left on the clock to cup the lead to 6-5. 

The five goals bring Castleton's season total to 77 on the year, a new single-season record. Individually, Chipman's goal gave her 64 for her career, breaking the program's all-time record of 63, which was held by Carolyn Griggs. 

The Spartans return to action on Thursday when they travel to face a tough Rensselaer team at 6 p.m.