CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton University women's volleyball team opened the season with a bang on Friday night, defeating NVU-Lyndon in straight sets to earn an opening-night victory in the first match of the Vermont Volleyball Classic.
It was the first win of head coach
Jessica Trudeau's career, moving the Spartans to 1-0 while Lyndon sits at 0-1. Castleton claimed the first set 25-9 before winning the middle frame 25-8. The Spartans closed out the match with an emphatic 25-5 third set, finishing the day hitting .386 as a team with 23 kills and only six errors. The Spartans also amassed 27 aces and won the dig battle 21-15.
Vanessa LeBrun racked up 11 kills for the Spartans, while
Hailey Martinovich had five and
Denasia Pompey four.
Caitlin Mahoney and
Maddie Delsignore had 10 aces apiece for the Spartans and Martinovich, Mahoney and
Mackenzie Wade had five digs each. Delsignore also racked up 19 assists.
Calysta Lohman had six kills for the Hornets, while Victoria Valentine added four assists. Charlotte Morris had a team-high five digs and Lohman added four.
Castleton opened the match with a big run, scoring the first 10 points of the contest behind three kills from LeBrun, three aces from Delsignore and a handful of errors by the Hornets. After some back-and-forth play in the middle portion of the set, Castleton closed on a 10-1 run to take the first set win, 25-9, capped by another kill from LeBrun.
Castleton opened set No. 2 strong once again, taking a 13-2 lead behind six service aces from three different Spartan servers. Mahoney caught fire a few points later, rattling off four aces in a row to push the lead to 18-3. Castleton closed the middle set on a 5-0 run, with Delsignore notching two more aces in the span for a 2-0 lead in the match for Castleton.
The final frame was all Spartans, as Castleton scored the final 18 points of the match unanswered behind the service of Mahoney. The junior had six aces in that span, and four of Martinovich's kills came in the stretch as well as Castleton wrapped up the match 3-0 with a 25-5 third-set win.
Castleton is back in action Saturday at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., facing Norwich in the morning tilt and NVU-Johnson in the evening matchup.
