CASTLETON, Vt. – The Spartans led 9-5 midway through the second half, but the University of New England stormed back to send the game into overtime. In the extra session the visitors completed the comeback for a 12-11 overtime victory on Wednesday afternoon. 

The Nor'easters earned two free-position attempts in the first two minutes of overtime with the game knotted 11-11, but couldn't covert. On their third attempt, Carly Sheehan snuck the ball past Meghan Els to secure the win. 

Els took the loss but finished the game with a career-high 22 saves as Castleton was outshot 41-31 in the contest, and 25-11 over the final 33 minutes. Both teams grabbed 12 draw controls, but the Spartans turned the ball over 27 times as they dropped to 1-3 overall. UNE improved to 3-3 with the victory despite going just 3-for-15 on free position attempts. 

Junior Grace Johnson paced the offense with a career-high six assists and two caused turnovers. Brandi Whittemore had a hat trick with five draw controls and two ground balls while Maria Ploof added three goals, one assist and two caused turnovers. Chantel Wilkin added one goal and one assist.

Brooke Kelleher led UNE with six points on four assists and two goals, while Jocelyn Davee scored four goals with five draw controls. Jolena Lampron recorded team-high five caused turnovers. Nicole Carvalho added three goals and two ground balls. 

The Nor'easters struck first, as Korinne Bohunsky scored 4:59 into the contest for a 1-0 advantage. Castleton responded with a pair of goals less than a minute apart by Tiffany Danyow and Ploof to take a 2-1 lead after ten minutes of action. Carlvalho tied it up at 18:25, but Nadine Downling scored just 14 seconds later for the 3-2 advantage. Wilkin made it 4-2 with 14:10 left in the half. 

The score remained 4-2 over the next nine minutes, before the UNE rattled off three consecutive goals for a 5-4 advantage with 3:05 remaining. Whittemore brought the Spartans back even, 5-5, with 1:36 left and Brianna MacKay made it 6-5 with just 57 second remaining. 

Hannah Braman opened the scoring in the second half, and the Spartans added three more scores over the first 16 minutes of the period for a 10-5 advantage. Carvalho started the comeback with a goal at 10:31 to make it 10-6, and the Nor'easters scored four more times over the next seven minutes to draw even 10-10. Davee then gave UNE a 11-10 lead with just 2:56 left off a feed from Kelleher, however, Whittemore tied the game up with 1:22 left. The Nor'easters got off one shot in the final 40 seconds, but Els was there to make the stop and force overtime. 

UNE won the draw to start overtime and never let the ball get into its defensive zone. The visitors drew three free position shots, finally scoring at 3:37 on Sheehan's attempt. 

Courtney Kendall earned the win in net for the Nor'easters, making 12 saves in the contest. 

Castleton returns to action on Friday when the team travels to play Worcester St. at 6:30 pm.