The Castleton State College women’s soccer team is off to a 1-1-1 start this season with strong performances on the road against Norwich and Johnson State sandwiched by a loss in the homer opener against Plattsburgh State. After tying Norwich 1-1 in the season opener, the Spartans had a tougher time in the home opener. They layed hard against one of the best teams in the league, making it a seesaw game until the beginning of the second half.

The much-anticipated home opener began under the cloudy sky of Castleton’s Alumni field. Plattsburgh took control of the ball early on in the contest, forcing Castleton to play tough defense to prevent the opposition’s massive attack.

In the 17th minute, Plattsburgh State’s co-captain Teresa Barber scored a goal to put her team on the board 1-0. The Spartans answered back after 10 minutes with a beautiful loop shoot by freshman Sarah Reaber-Spina over the goalkeeper. The first half ended with both teams tied at one goal each.

But just five minutes into the second half, Plattsburgh’s Barber scored once again from a throw-in that was misplayed by the Spartans. Down 2-1, however, Castleton wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. The Spartans got an indirect free-kick right outside of the box three minutes after Plattsburgh’s goal. Junior Stephanie Reuter took the kick and pinpointed it onto Tracy Stala’s head, and Tracy sharply headed the ball to the upper left corner of the goal.

While Castleton kept hustling and playing hard, Plattsburgh State seemed to pick up the pace as Barber scored another goal just two minutes after the Spartan tally.

Castleton goalkeeper Kim Allen made many great saves to prevent more goals from the opposition. With seven minutes left in the game, Plattsburgh took a shot off a misplay from the Castleton defense. It shook the back of the net and gave Plattsburgh a 4-2 lead and some comfort.

“Plattsburgh is a better team than us and they usually kill us by a lot more goals than this game, so coming in the second half with a tie is like a win to them,” head coach Chris Chadelaine said after the loss. “Our team has five starting freshman; all of the starting defenders are freshmen and we have one transfer student. I expect many mistakes since we are a young team, but there are many possibilities to make our team better.