KEENE, N.H. – The Castleton University women's volleyball team dropped a road match against Little East Conference for Keene State on Thursday night in straight sets, falling 25-6, 25-19, 25-16 to the Owls.
 
Castleton falls to 0-3 with the loss, while Keene State improves to 2-1 on the season. The Owls hit .240 as a team, while Castleton hit .011 on the day. Keene State held a 40-19 edge in kills, a 7-1 edge in blocks and a 55-43 edge in digs on the night.
 
Lizzie Goodrich led Castleton with seven kills on the night, while Jessica Trudeau had six kills for the Spartans. Goodrich also had a solo block and seven digs on the night for the Spartans with Trudeau amassing nine digs. Bre MacDuff 16 assists and a team-leading 10 digs on the night, while Meghan Zawatsky and Madison Hamelink had six digs apiece.
 
Megan Palmer and Emilyann Ashford had seven kills each for the Owls, with Sydney Johnson and Cassidy Samuelson adding six kills each. Kacie Blanchet racked up 30 assists, four aces and six digs, while Sarah Williams led all players with 12 digs of her own.
 
Keene State dominated the opening set, taking it 25-6 after a 10-0 run in the middle of the set and a 5-0 run to close the frame. Castleton bounced back with a competitive second set, scoring four unanswered points capped off with a kill from Trudeau to make it a one-point set, 17-16. After the Owls extended the lead to 18-16, Castleton scored twice on a pair of attack errors to level the score at 18-18. The two sides traded points to make it 19-19, but Keene closed out the middle set on a 6-0 run to take a 2-0 lead on the night.
 
The Spartans battled deep into the third set as well, staying within two points until the midway point, 15-13, after a kill from Trudeau and an error by the Owls. Keene then went on a 5-0 run to take a 20-13 lead, and closed out the set with a kill by Reagan Fleming to finish off the win with a 25-19 victory in the final set.
 
Castleton returns to action on April 25 at Glenbrook Gym at 1 p.m. against Rhode Island College.