CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton University women's volleyball team hosted its first home match in 522 days on Wednesday, falling to Plymouth State by a final score of 3-0 in Little East Conference action at Glenbrook Gym.
 
The Spartans (0-2, 0-2 LEC) fell in straight sets, but pushed Plymouth (2-0, 2-0 LEC) to the brink in the middle frame. The Panthers took the opening set 25-11 before a tightly-contested second set broke the way of the visitors, 26-24. Plymouth closed out the night with a 25-15 win in the third set to complete the sweep. The Panthers swung at a .378 rate as a team, while Castleton hit .030. The Panthers also had a 38-20 edge in kills, a 34-20 edge in assists and a 25-22 edge in digs.
 
Lizzie Goodrich led all players with 10 kills on the day to go along with a service ace. Goodrich also added three digs and two assists. Jessica Trudeau had four kills on the night while Madison Hamelink chipped in three kills, five digs and a pair of aces for the Spartans. Bre MacDuff had 15 assists to lead the team, while Meghan Zawatsky had seven digs.
 
Nora Ryan and Natalie Gravelle had nine kills apiece for the Panthers, while Else MacNeill had seven and Hannah Chartier four. Alexa Price served up five aces on the evening in addition to her 25 assists, while Chartier and Katie Townsend had a trio of aces each. Plymouth had five blocks as a team, with Ryan and Ryley McNeeley notching four block assists each. Ryan, Gravelle and Hannah Douglas tied for the team lead with five digs each.
 
The two sides battled evenly in the opening points of the first set, with Plymouth holding an 8-7 lead after a pair of points from the Spartans. The Panthers scored the next six points to jump out to a 14-7 edge, and Castleton was unable to work out of the hole as PSU took the first set, 25-11.
 
The Panthers ran out to a 6-0 lead in the second set, but Castleton chipped away little by little until the gap was just two points, 10-8. The two sides traded points before a 3-0 run by Plymouth put the visitors ahead 15-11, but Castleton refused to go away. A 5-1 run by Castleton later in the set—capped off by an ace from MacDuff—put the Spartans ahead 19-17. The Panthers responded with a four-point run to take the lead back, 21-19, but the Spartans leveled the set again at 21-all after an ace from Hamelink. The two sides traded points once more, giving Plymouth a 23-22 edge, but a pair of errors on Plymouth gave the Spartans a 24-23 lead before Plymouth called timeout. Out of the timeout, the Panthers scored three unanswered to take the set, 26-24, as well as 2-0 lead after two sets.
 
The final set saw more even play in the early portion, with the two sides level at 9-9 before an 8-0 run by Plymouth put the frame out of reach, 17-9. Castleton continued to battle, scoring a pair of late points on kills by Trudeau and Goodrich, but Gravelle put the nail in the coffin with a kill to end the final set 25-15 in favor of Plymouth.
 
Castleton returns to action next Thursday, April 15, at Keene State. The match is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m.