CASTLETON, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton women's lacrosse team got into the win column with a 14-6 Little East Conference victory over Rhode Island College on Saturday afternoon at Dave Wolk Stadium.
 
The Spartans (1-7, 1-0 LEC) pulled ahead in the second quarter and never looked back, outscoring RIC (1-7, 0-1 LEC) 8-1 over the middle two periods in the contest. VTSU Castleton put 29 shots on goal and racked up 34 ground balls with 14 draw controls and 12 caused turnovers. The game was also the Spartans' annual Morgan's Message game, raising awareness for mental health issues and avenues of support for those in need in honor of the late Morgan Rodgers, a former Duke women's lacrosse player.
 
Gianna Geraci led the attack with four goals while Kimberly McCarthy chipped in three goals and an assist. Phoebe Loomis, Renny Cota and Megan Ward had two goals apiece. Tien Connor dished out four assists and Eva Hofmeister added a goal as well. Colleen Sheridan led the team with six ground balls followed by Gretel Seaman with five and Geraci and Loomis tallied three caused turnovers apiece. Liv Cormier earned her first career victory between the pipes.
 
Nicolle Rosales had a hat-trick for RIC in the contest, with three others netting one goal each. Rosales also had a team-high three ground balls with Giana Franco adding a pair of caused turnovers. Maggie Schwab had five ground balls. Fiona Baxter stopped 15 shots in goal.
 
The Spartans got on the board first, with Loomis scoring just 39 seconds into the contest for a 1-0 lead. Neither offense scored over the next 13 minutes until RIC leveled the game at 1-1 with a late goal in the first quarter.
 
Starting the second all squared, the Spartans rattled off four unanswered goals heading into halftime. Geraci scored a player down three minutes into the quarter before Loomis netted her second of the afternoon. McCarthy tallied her first with 6:08 left in the half and Geraci's second of the day made it 5-1 heading into halftime.
 
The Spartans continued to roll in the third quarter, with McCarthy scoring twice over a two-minute span to complete the hat-trick and give the hosts a 7-1 lead. The lead grew to 8-1 with Ward's first score of the afternoon before RIC stopped the run with a goal of its own. Ward answered quickly, scoring just 24 seconds later to push the Castleton lead to 9-2 with 15 minutes to play.
 
The Anchorwomen found their stride on offense in the final frame, scoring the first two goals of the fourth quarter to make it a 9-4 game. Cota then scored her first career goal to make it 10-4 and scored again 90 seconds later on a woman-down stretch to make it 11-5. Hofmeister got in the mix with her first career goal to extend the gap to 12-5 before Geraci put the game away with two goals in less than a minute to make it 14-5 with 2:16 to play. RIC added the last goal, but it was moot as the Spartans collected their first win under head coach Bella Ferraro.
 
VTSU Castleton wraps up a four-game homestand on Monday evening at 4 p.m. when it hosts Mt. St. Mary at Dave Wolk Stadium.