RUTLAND, Vt. — A season high for goals was set Friday night as the Castleton women's hockey team defeated Plymouth State, 6-3, at Spartan Arena.

Meg Aiken and Brooke Greenwood, both centers, collected two goals apiece while wings Darby Palisi and Emily Harris also found paydirt. Alex Johnson and Samantha Lawler each nabbed a pair helpers as eight skaters in total earned assists. Izabella Segui got the win in goal, bumping her record to 4-2-0 with 24 saves.

Senior defenders Katherine Campoli and Kaitlin Bardellini had multiple shot blocks, combining for five. Aiken went 12-for-14 in the faceoff circle, the freshman's best performance in her young career.

The Spartans (9-6-1, 6-3-0) scored twice in the contest's 13th minute to take an early advantage. While Castleton was on their only power play of the night, Palisi and Lawler set up a shot that got rebounded, found Greenwood's stick, and tallied a Spartan goal. Seconds later, Aiken won the ensuing faceoff and Rachel McNeil fed the puck back to the reigning NEHC Player of the Week for her fifth career goal. The Spartans succeeded in their lone penalty kill moments later to further deny the Panthers (2-14-0, 1-8-0 NEHC).

Castleton encountered heavier competition in the second stanza, but extended the lead to 3-0 in the 10th minute when Greenwood found net on a feed from Lawler and Miranda Wheeler. The Panthers took a bite out of the deficit in the final five minutes, thanks to Taylor Thomas and Addie Swanson goals that brought Plymouth State within a score.

Defense took center stage as the third period kicked off with the Spartans blocking five shots in the first six minutes. In the eighth minute, Aiken connected with Harris who put the Panthers in a spin cycle, threading the needle for a score. A fifth goal came in the 14th minute as Johnson and Bardellini helped Aiken log back-to-back multi-score games. PSU's Meghan Hamilton netted a score with 2:19 to go as goaltender Amelia Julian abandoned her post soon after. Palisi received kicks from Emery Bonner and Johnson, making use of the empty goal with a score that sealed the game at 6-3.

The Spartans travel to Plymouth State tomorrow, January 14 for the back end of the conference home-and-home series. Puck drop is set for 2 p.m.