March 29, 2008

Castleton stumbles down the stretch in 18-10 loss at Bridgewater State

Bridgewater, MA-The Castleton State College women's lacrosse team could not hang on to a 7-6 second-half lead at Bridgewater State, and fell 18-10 in New England Women's Lacrosse Alliance (NEWLA) action.

Bridgewater State's Shannon Manning scored a game-high five goals to lead the Bears to the come from behind victory.

The pre-season favorite, Bears remain undefeated in conference play as they are now 4-2 overall and a perfect 2-0 in the NEWLA. Castleton drops to 1-2 on the season and 0-1 in Alliance play.

After a tight first half in which Bridgewater led 5-4 at the intermission, the scoring opened up in the second as the teams combined for 19 goals in the final stanza.

With just under 21 minutes remaining in the second half, Castleton took its only lead of the game (7-6) thanks to back-to-back goals from senior attack Nicole Bouchard and junior midfielder Katelyn Greene.

That lead would be short-lived, however, as BSC reeled off nine unanswered goals in a span of ten minutes to put the game away. Manning scored two goals and assisted on two others during the run, while freshman attack Courtney Lennon added a pair of goals. Lennon finished with four goals and an assist for the game, while freshman attack Jenny Jones registered three markers. Senior midfielder Alison Gugliotta assisted on three goals while also tallying three ground balls, two caused turnovers and draw control.

Freshman keeper Katie Weber (Arlington, MA) turned aside nine shots to pick up her third win of the season.

Bouchard led the way for Castleton as she netted five goals, while junior goaltender Meredith Pope recorded 11 saves in goal for the Spartans.

The NEWLA schedule resumes for the Bears on Tuesday afternoon as they host Westfield State College at 4 PM. Castleton travels to Worcester State College on Tuesday for a 6 o'clock conference game with the Lancers. [Game Stats]

###Spartans###