LYNDONVILLE, Vt. – The Castleton University women's volleyball team snapped a five-match skid on Wednesday night, downing in-state rival Northern Vermont University-Lyndon by a final score of 3-0 in Stannard Gym.
The Spartans picked up straight-set victories, 25-15, 25-14 and 25-12 to improve to 4-7, while Lyndon falls to 0-11 on the season. The Spartans held advantages in kills (30-16), aces (9-4), assists (24-16) and digs (32-20) in the match, while also hitting .257 as a team, notching 30 kills with 11 attack errors in 74 attempts.
Lizzie Goodrich racked up 11 kills and only one error, swinging at a .667 rate in the win. The junior also had two aces and was part of two blocks—one solo and one assisted.
Jessica Trudeau and
Alivia Gaulin had five kills apiece, while
Hailey Martinovich added four.
Bre MacDuff had 18 assists and three aces on the evening, while
Mackenzie Wade led the team with 11 digs. Martinovich and
Jen Halliday added seven digs each.
Lyndon was led by five kills apiece from Calysta Lohman and Kiana Jones, with Jones also adding three solo blocks and seven digs on defense. Kersene Austinville had two kills and two solo blocks for four points, while Charlotte Morris had four aces on the night.
Castleton used a seven-point run in the opening set to pull ahead of Lyndon 13-5, and never looked back as it continued to pull away throughout the late portion of the set. A four-point run capped by a kill from Trudeau made it 21-9, and Castleton scored the last two points of the set to stave off a Hornet comeback and take a 1-0 lead.
The Spartans scored the first five points of the second frame, and later pushed the lead to seven at 18-11 after another five-point run. Two kills by Trudeau in the final four points of the set gave Castleton a 25-14 win in the second, pushing the Spartans ahead 2-0 in the match.
The final set began with a Hornet point, but Castleton rattled off nine unanswered after that, as Castleton again jumped out to a large lead. The gap stretched to 13-2 after a four-point run, but a six-point stretch by Lyndon later in the set narrowed the lead back to 18-12. Castleton put the game away from there, scoring the final seven points of the match uninterrupted, three of which came on aces by Halliday.
Castleton returns to action Saturday at WestConn for a tri-match against Salem State and WestConn in Danbury, Conn.
