DARTMOUTH, Mass. – The Vermont State University Castleton women's lacrosse team dropped a Little East Conference tilt on the road on Saturday, falling 21-8 to UMass Dartmouth at Cressy Field.
 
The Spartans were led by a three-goal game from Renny Cota, who notched her first career hat-trick after scoring twice per game in each of her last two games before Saturday. Megan Ward added two goals and Tien Connor, Gianna Geraci and Kimberly McCarthy had one goal each. Connor alsoh had two assists. Ward snagged eight ground balls and had two caused turnovers in addition to three draw controls. Phoebe Loomis notched four caused turnovers as well. Liv Cormier made six saves in the contest.
 
VTSU Castleton was outshot 38-15 overall and 27-12 on goal, with ground balls slightly favoring UMass Dartmouth, 24-23. The Corsairs won 21-of-32 draw controls and scored three times on free-position shots and nine times on player-up opportunities.
 
Widline Thomas led all players with 10 points thanks to four goals and six helpers, while Melanny Sanchez Alvarez had eight points on six goals and two assists. Maddy Allen scored six times and Lily Nees had a hat-trick in addition to six caused turnovers and six ground balls. Sanchez Alvarez had 11 draw controls and Allen added eight. Kelsie Couto made four saves in the contest.
 
The Spartans struck first in the contest when Cota got on the board just 1:14 into the action. UMass Dartmouth rattled off three in a row before Geraci and Ward scored just 42 seconds apart to tie the game at 3-3 late in the first quarter.
 
The Corsairs pulled away in the second quarter, going from a 3-3 tie at the start to an 11-4 halftime lead. UMass Dartmouth scored five in a row to start the quarter before Connor scored on an assist from McCarthy to stop the run. Three more goals before the break cushioned the hosts' lead to seven at the mid-way mark.
 
McCarthy opened the third quarter with a Spartan goal to make it 11-5, but five more goals pushed the gap to double digits after three straight woman-up goals by UMass Dartmouth.
 
The Corsairs led 16-5 through three quarters before Ward and Cota each scored to drop the gap back to nine, 16-7. UMass Dartmouth answered quickly with three more goals to put the clock in running time for good. Cota tacked on a woman-down goal late for Castleton to wrap up the Spartans' scoring.
 
VTSU Castleton is back in action Thursday at 1 p.m. with a trip to VTSU Lyndon.