CASTLETON, Vt. – Emily Lowell scored three goals, while Gabriella Hunt notched her third of the year to propel the Spartans past the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers – 4-3 – on Wednesday evening at Spartan Stadium.

Castleton improves to 3-5 following the nonconference win, while Rensselaer falls to 1-6.

Throughout the first half, RPI used an aggressive offensive attack to bring the Engineers within inches of several goals. Spartan keeper Leah Holland was a brick wall in the cage, making 15 saves in the opening period.

Castleton reversed the pace of play after coming out of the halftime break. Just over seven minutes in, Lowell redirected a feed from Sarah Wells to score. The latter sent the ball through the scrum to a surging Lowell.

Four minutes later, Lowell struck again, this time on a fast break opportunity. Casey Traill intercepted a pass to get the Spartans off and running before she hit Lowell in stride to make it 2-0 Castleton.

Pushing the Spartan lead to 3-0, Hunt slapped a shot between the legs of RPI keeper Rachel Kaufman, which found the back of the cage. Cydney Jeffrey hit Hunt with the leading pass at 58:01.

In the 63rd minute with the Engineers starting to shift the momentum, Lowell returned to score her third goal of the evening. The Brandon, Vt. native put away a second-chance goal as Hunt ripped one that bounced off the goalkeeper's pads.

With the score standing at 4-1 with less than six minutes on the game clock, Castleton was forced to hold off a furious rally from Rensselaer. The Engineers' Mikaela DiBello notched a goal in the 65th minute after beating Holland in a one-on-one situation.

Following that, Megan Jones tallied her second score of the day at 65:25 to bring the score to 4-3. Castleton went back-and-forth with RPI over the next four-plus minutes, eventually keeping Rensselaer away from the goal long enough to earn the victory.

Holland improved to 2-1 in the cage on the season. She made a career-high 24 saves. For the Engineers, Rachel Kaufman took the loss, while making five saves in 58:01. Kayla Bell entered in relief to clock the final 11:59 and make one save.

Castleton returns to action at 1 p.m. on Saturday as it opens conference action with a game against the Chargers of Colby-Sawyer College.

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