CASTLETON, Vt. – The Vermont State University Castleton women's lacrosse team hung tough in the first half on Tuesday evening, but a second-half outburst by Keene State was enough to push the Owls past the Spartans 22-9 in Little East Conference play at Dave Wolk Stadium.
The Spartans (2-11, 1-3 LEC) trailed just 10-7 at halftime thanks to a five-goal second quarter, but the Owls began to pull away in the third. Keene State (8-4, 3-1 LEC) held a 28-14 edge in shots on goal and a 25-11 edge in ground balls, though the Spartans led 18-14 in draw controls in the contest. The Owls were dominant on free-position shots, scoring on 7-of-8 attempts.
Megan Ward had a big day for the Spartans with four goals, eight draw controls and three ground balls.
Phoebe Loomis Scored twice while
Renny Cota,
Kailyn August and
Gianna Geraci had one goal each. Geraci also dished out a career-high three assists in the contest.
Liv Cormier made six saves in the game.
The Owls were propelled by six goals from Haile Ratajack and four each from Mindy St. Marie and Tess Brown. Three others scored twice. Brown led the way with seven ground balls and five caused turnovers while St. Marie had a team-high five draw controls. Mabelle Bessette stopped five shots between the pipes.
The game went back-and-forth early, with the teams trading blows over the first seven minutes. Keene struck first before Loomis answered to make it a 1-1 contest 3:15 into action. Brown added a goal for the Owls before Ward scored her first of the night to make it 2-2. The Owls scored the next four goals to end the quarter on top 6-2.
The lead grew to 9-2 four minutes into the second quarter thanks to three more Owl goals, but VTSU Castleton responded in a big way. After trading goals to a 10-3 gap, the Spartans scored four in a row going into halftime—three of which came on a woman-up advantage. Ward scored back-to-back goals before August and Cota tallied the last two going into the break at 10-7.
Keene State grew its lead to 13-7 over the first 11 minutes of the third quarter before Ward broke the run for a 13-8 score. Two more goals made it a 15-8 game going to the final 15 minutes. The Owls broke it open with five unanswered goals to start the fourth before Loomis scored off a pass from Cota for the Spartans' final tally with 4:34 to play. The Owls added two more late goals for the final score of 22-9.
VTSU Castleton is back in action on Saturday at 2 p.m. at WestConn.
