CASTLETON, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton women's volleyball team beat Norwich for the second time this season on Wednesday night, topping the Cadets in three sets at Glenbrook Gym.
 
VTSU Castleton (5-8) won by scores of 25-22, 25-20, and 25-16 against Norwich (4-10), marking their second three-set victory over the Cadets this season. The Spartans had a 38-26 edge in total kills and 37-25 edge in assists. Both sides had six blocks, and Norwich held a 53-48 edge in digs.
 
Vanessa LeBrun racked up a team-high 11 kills and 15 digs, and had three block assists for VTSU Castleton. Jocelyn Ray notched nine kills, two solo blocks and three block assists of her own. Madison Sheehan was strong on the serve for Castleton in the contest, leading the team with a pair of aces in addition to eight kills. Maddie Delsignore dished out 32 assists and collected 12 digs defensively.
 
Norwich's offense was paced by 10 kills from Abby Kanaga and six from Sam Lebruska. Autumn Parkhurst had 14 digs and Lillie Ells had 13 for the Cadets. Giovanna Fruci notched three aces on the serve in the contest.
 
The two sides traded blows in the first set, exchanging the lead a number of times until Castleton claimed it for good late in the frame. Deadlocked at 17-17, Sheehan and LeBrun notched back-to-back kills before an error by Norwich gave the Spartans a 20-17 lead. A three-point run later in the frame that began with a kill and an ace from Sheehan made it 23-19 Spartans. Norwich pushed in an attempt to comeback, making it 24-22 late, but Mahoney put the set away with a kill for a 25-22 win in the opening stanza.
 
The Spartans opened up a 16-11 lead thanks to a 9-1 run behind Sheehan and Delsignore's services. Ray had three kills in the spurt and Sheehan logged another ace during the run. A Norwich timeout rejuvenated the Cadets as they went on a 5-1 run to pull within a point, 17-16, and force a Spartan timeout. The two sides went back-and-forth for a bit, but VTSU Castleton pulled away late with a 4-1 run to end the set on top 25-20.
 
Delsignore served first for Castleton to open the third set, giving the Spartans a 3-0 lead behind kills from Mahoney and LeBrun in addition to an ace. Later in the set, VTSU Castleton rattled off three unanswered points to go ahead 18-11, but Norwich countered with four unanswered points to make it 18-15. The two sides traded points after that to a 19-16 score before Castleton ended the night with six points in a row that featured kills by three different Spartans.
 
VTSU Castleton returns to action on Saturday at Plymouth at 4 p.m. for a Little East matchup.