Many times, when any team loses their senior captain they take a step back and usually lose some games they might have won. This can’t be said for women’s tennis. The Lady Spartans have come out strong, beginning their season with a 2-1 record.After opening the season with a loss to a tough and better opponent in Colby Sawyer, Castleton has not only beaten its competitors down, but also beaten them down handily taking matches from University of Massachusetts-Boston 7-2, and Sage College 8-1.

Rob Purdy, the new head coach, has a young women’s team poised and ready to make a run at a North East Athletic Conference title.

Michelle Podnecky has pushed toward the same this week and it earned her NEAC East Player of the Week.

The girls are back at home on the 18 and 19 of September vs. Thomas and Lyndon State.

Cross Country is off to a fast start as well with wins coming against Green Mountain and St. Joseph’s in a tri-meet this past week.

The women had an impressive 1st place finish as a team. Maggie Klein, who was awarded North Atlantic Conference Runner of the Week, led the Spartans.

Klein finished with a time of 22:25. Not far behind her was Amber Ruscoe who came in with a time of 22:40. The women finished with 5 of the top 6 runners in the meet.

The men who also ran in this race shared the success of the women and finished first overall as a team, but more impressive than that, they took the top 8 spots in the race.

Nohea King and Isaac French led the charge with times around 31 minutes. The rest of the team followed closely behind, all finishing within 4 minutes of each other to take the win back to Castleton.

The Cross Country teams travel to University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth for the invitational race on September 18.

Despite the success of some of the teams early in the season, the volleyball team is experiencing some growing pains.

After losing a number of senior starters from last seasons roster, the Spartans are off to a rough 0-2 start.

With losses coming to Norwich and Mass Liberal Arts, both by a score of 3-0, the young ladies of the Spartan volleyball look to rebound vs. Anna Maria on September 18.