CASTLETON, Vt. – Kaitlin Bardellini buried three first-half goals en route to the Castleton field hockey team's 9-0 shutout of Elms on Saturday afternoon. The Spartans received a full-team contribution in the home-opening win as six different players found paydirt, four of which had first career goals.
Bardellini took four shots on the day, scoring all three shots on goal. Emily Harris was a mainstay in the box with a pair of goals on seven shots with two assists. Mya Martin, Amelie Steinel, Chance Jaquin, and Lauren Ross scored on their first and only shot attempts. Peyton Richardson took four shots, one on goal, with two dimes that she dished out in the opening 15.
Castleton got on the board at the five-minute mark as Richardson found Harris on a cross into the box that the Crondall, England native found the back post with. Harris proceeded to send a barrage of shots into the Blazer goal for the next five minutes, but it would be Bardellini who scored on a Harris assist from five yards out. Steinel, a freshman from Germany, entered for Bardellini and knocked home a goal of her own at 13:31. The Spartans wasted little time to strike again after the quarter break as Bardellini put in a penalty goal at 16:20, then collected her third score on a breakaway pass from Harris just 40 seconds later. Mya Martin was found by Madison Hanna who got her own rebound and the freshman from Delran, N.J. sent it in, giving the Spartans a 7-0 lead at halftime.
The nation's goals leader a year ago in Harris collected a shot that Elms goalkeeper Kaitlyn Volk saved, immediately taking another swing and knocking it through to log the Spartans' second multi-goal outing. Jaquin, despite typically being posted in the Castleton defense, replaced forward Mya Martin with ten minutes to go, quickly drawing a penalty corner and finishing a baseline connection from Annie Duprey to score the final goal and make it 9-0. Hannah Frittenburg started the second half in goal, replacing Zoe Martin who made a trio of saves in the opening 30 minutes. Frittenburg made a pair of saves in the fourth period to post the Spartans' first clean sheet of the season.
Castleton's next opponent will be defending NCAA Division III champion Middlebury on Tuesday, September 6 at 7 p.m. under the lights at Dave Wolk Stadium.
