WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Vermont State University Castleton men's lacrosse team wrapped up the regular season on Friday evening, falling to Eastern Connecticut 13-6 to cement themselves as the No. 6 seed in next week's Little East Conference Tournament.
 
First-year head coach Ed Stephenson has landed the Spartans in the LEC Tournament for the first time since the team made the move to the league in 2019. VTSU Castleton went 2-6 in conference play, defeating Salem State and Southern Maine to secure a postseason berth.
 
Eastern, which wraps up the regular season as the No. 5 seed in the LEC, outshot Castleton 37-23 on goal and had a 45-23 edge in ground balls in Friday's contest thanks to an 18-5 advantage on face-offs. The Spartans were 1-for-1 on man-up chances and cleared the ball on 21-of-28 chances.
 
Preston Kozlowski had a solid day with two goals and an assist, while Carter Frankenhoff had a goal and an assist for a two-point outing. Cam Frankenhoff, Ethan Esposito and Hunter Sarro had goals as well. Casey Meczywor had an assist and three ground balls. Chase Strychaluk continued to pile up saves, stopping 24 shots in 58 minutes between the pipes.
 
Three different Eastern attackers had hat-tricks in the contest, with Brycen Kennedy, Quinn O'Connor and Mike Stevenson scoring three times apiece. Rick O'Neal racked up 14 ground balls from the face-off spot at Gregory Hilinski stood tall in goal with 17 saves in the win.
 
The Warriors controlled play in the opening quarter, leading 3-0 after 15 minutes, but the Spartans found some offense in the second. Kozlowski got Castleton on the board to make it 3-1. Eastern tallied the next two scores to go ahead 5-1, but Sarro—on an assist from Kozlowski—cut it back to 5-2 midway through the frame. Cam Frankenhoff made it a 5-3 contest two minutes later with his 24th goal of the season. The Warriors closed the half strong, scoring two more to make it 7-3 at the break.
 
The two sides played evenly in the third, with Eastern scoring first in the stanza before Esposito and Kozlowski scored back-to-back Spartan goals to make it 8-5. After another Warrior goal, Carter Frankenhoff kept it close with a late goal in the third to head to the final 15 minutes trailing by just four, 10-6. Eastern scored three unanswered in the final frame to put it away, locking the Spartans into the No. 6 seed in the upcoming LEC Tournament on Tuesday.
 
The Spartans will travel to Plymouth State on Tuesday evening at a time to be announced for the LEC Quarterfinal.