(With contributions from Castleton State Sports Information)

Castleton State Downs Southern Maine 4-1

            RUTLAND, Vt. -- Four different players scored to give the Castleton State College a four-goal advantage 32 minutes into the game and the Spartans went on to defeat the visiting University of Southern Maine Huskies, 4-1, in ECAC Women's East action Friday at Spartan Arena.

            The win was a single-season record 12th for the Spartans who improved to 12-8-2 overall and 7-4-2 in league play.  The Huskies dropped to 10-11-1 overall and 7-6-0 in the league.

            In the first period, the Spartans took advantage of four power plays and capitalized twice to take a 2-0 lead. Sophomore Rachel Bombardier (Pittsford, Vt.) redirected a shot by rookie Lisa Buratynski (Ajax, Ontario) that trickled past USM sophomore goalie Nia Kelly (Cary, N.C.) to put Castleton ahead 1-0.  Later in the period, rookie Lisa Kilroy (Leominster, Mass.) buried a rebound to give the Spartans a 2-0 advantage.

            In the second, Castleton continued to apply pressure as they increased their lead to 4-0.  Junior Taylor Skelton (Ely, Minn.) added a short-handed goal, her second of the season, at 10:13.  The forward gathered a rebound in the left slot and buried it to put Castleton ahead 3-0.  Two minutes later, sophomore Anna Daniels (Falun, Sweden) found the net for her team-leading 12th goal of the season.  Sophomore Nicoline Jensen (Hellerup, Denmark) snatched a loose puck in the neutral zone and skated it deep before crossing it in front of the goalmouth where Daniels swept it in to put the Spartans up 4-0.

            In the final minute of the second, Southern Maine got on the board with a goal from sophomore Cassandra Sherman (North Smithfield, R.I.).  Rookie Erin Ferrara (Weymouth, Mass.) ripped a blast from the point that Castleton junior goaltender Paula Stephens (Seattle, Wash.) deflected away, but the loose puck trickled right to Sherman who finished the play to make it 4-1 at the second intermission.

            Stephens earned the win in net for Castleton, turning away a total of 20 shots.  Kelly took the loss for Southern Maine despite tying a season-high with 30 saves in the game.

            Southern Maine travels to New England College (Henniker, N.H.) for a game Saturday afternoon (1:00 p.m.).  Castleton hosts Plymouth State University in its final regular season home game on Saturday (1:00 p.m.). 

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