CASTLETON, Vt. – Castleton's Women's Soccer team fought back from a two-goal deficit late in the second half, but failed to complete the comeback, as Bard captured a 2-1 victory in the first round of the Rutland Herald Invitational at Spartan Stadium this afternoon.

The Spartans fell to 1-1 with the loss and will now play in the consolation game tomorrow at 1 pm, while the Raptors captured their second win of the season to advance to the tournament final, where they will face the winner of the Kean versus UMass Boston matchup.

The hosts put in a solid shift, outshooting the opposition 19-7 with six shots on goal, but the squad failed to take advantage of its opportunities. Mallory Costello was the lone scorer for Castleton in the contest after collecting her fourth goal of the season in the 87th minute. Katie Hopper, meanwhile, opened the scoring for Bard in the 31st minute before Clara Gallagher secured the victory with her first goal of the season midway through the second half.

In the 7th minute, it looked like the Spartans were going to take an early one-goal lead when Costello outpaced a defender to create a one-on-one break, but Raptors goalie Kelsey O'Brien came out of the net to force the senior's shot to go wide.

After trading possession for most of the first half, Bard found the back of the net, as Hopper collected her first goal of 2015. Nicole Ellin picked up an assist on the play after Hooper chipped her pass bar down from just inside the box to give the away side a one-goal advantage in the 31st minute of play.

Down by one, the hosts had another golden opportunity just six minutes into the second half. Junior Nicole Wershoven was streaking down the far flank, and Costello threaded a ball out in front to her teammate. With just the goalie to beat, Wershoven fired a shot from the far post, but the keeper smothered the ball and it was eventually cleared from play.

Bard struck again with just over thirty minutes remaining in play to double its lead. After Jessica Binkowski made a great save to deny a Raptor free kick, Gallagher collected the reobound and knocked it home to make it 2-0 with 31 minutes remaining.

With just over 2:30 minutes remaining in the contest, Castleton finally got on the scoreboard when Costello notched her fourth goal in the past two games. The senior forward received a ball over the top and slipped a shot just past the keeper that hit the far post and rolled across the line to cut the Spartan deficit back to one.

However, it was too little too late, as Bard held off the Spartans late surge to capture the 1-0 victory. O'Brien picked up her second win of the season after producing five saves in 90 minutes of play, while Binkowski dropped to 1-1 on the year in the losing effort.