MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Castleton University women's lacrosse team dropped its Little East Conference opener on Saturday, falling at Eastern Connecticut State by a final score of 21-4.
The Spartans (1-4, 0-1 LEC) were kept off the board in the first half, but bounced back to score four second-half goals against the Warriors (6-1, 1-0 LEC). EastConn scored the first 19 goals in the game, with Castleton scoring four of the final six goals in the contest.
The Warriors had a 38-14 edge in shots—30-10 on goal—and a 20-19 edge in ground balls. Eastern won 16 draw controls to Castleton's 10, and the Spartans turned it over 28 times to Eastern's 16. Castleton was 10-for-25 clearing the ball, while the Warriors went 16-for-17 on the clear.
Aubra Linn, Lacey Greenamyre and Kimberly McCarthy all had two-point games for Castleton, with Linn and McCarthy scoring twice each, and Greenamyre collecting two assists. Greenamyre also led Castleton with nine draw controls, six ground balls and three caused turnovers. McCarthy and Calista Carl had three ground balls each. Raven Payne and Carly Curtis split time evenly in goal, with Payne suffering the loss after allowing 15 goals while making six saves in the first half. Curtis allowed six scores with three saves in the second stanza.
Eastern received seven points from Chloe Miller on five goals and two assists, while Tristan Kijak and Caroline Stent each logged hat tricks. Kijak had two assists in addition to three goals, with Stent adding one helper to her scores. Stent was one of four players to finish the day with four points for the Warriors. Sarah Gallagher earned the win, making two saves without allowing a goal in the first half. Nicole Gaston played the second half in goal, allowing four goals with four saves.
Eastern Connecticut ran out to a quick lead, scoring seven times in the opening 10 minutes. The Warriors continued to pile on the goals, racking up a 15-0 lead at halftime. After Eastern scored four more times out of the break to make it 19-0, Castleton broke into the score column when Linn netted her third goal of the season. She found the back of the net once again less than two minutes later, giving the Spartans their second goal of the game. McCarthy made it three goals in a row for Castleton less than two minutes after Linn's second score, but Eastern added two more goals before McCarthy wrapped up the game's scoring with 1:03 to play in the contest.
Castleton plays its first home game of the season on Monday night at 7 p.m. when it hosts Norwich at Dave Wolk Stadium.
