Troy, N.Y. - The Spartans stumbled on the road, suffering their third loss of the season at the hands of Rensselaer, 3-0 on Saturday, Sept. 14 at ECAV Stadium.

Emily Eastman finished with two goals for the Engineers who improved to 4-1 on the season. With the loss, Castleton slips to 3-3.

The action started with a bad bounce for the Spartans. RPI crossed the ball into the box and as it bounced around in front of the goal mouth, the ball connected with a Spartan defender and into the back of the net for an own goal. The unfortunate play put the Engineers up 1-0 in the early going.

In the 35th minute, Eastman struck for her first tally of the day. The junior collected a ball off the foot of Sandy Kirk at the top of the box and struck a laser into the top left corner to extend the Engineers' lead to 2-0. 

Just under seven minutes later, Eastman struck again. This time the forward ripped the ball off of the crossbar and into the net, putting RPI up 3-0 just before the halftime break. 

In the second half, Castleton tried to generate an attack, but were stymied by the Engineers' defense. RPI effectively blanketed the Spartans attackers, limiting the squad to just six shots on the day. Castleton's leading scorer Mallory Costello was shut down, unable to produce any shots.

RPI goalkeeper Alex Scholz turned away the only Spartans' only shot on goal and split time with Steph Vargas to earn the shutout. Jessica Binkowski made six saves and took the loss in net for the Spartans. 

Castleton falls to 3-3 on the season and will host Norwich on Thursday, Sept. 19 in their final tune-up before conference play.