Women’s lax wins NAC East

After an outstanding performance by the women’s lacrosse team, the Spartans defeated New England College by a score of 19-10 for the North Atlantic Conference East Division title for the first time under their new head coach, Mary Kate Scardillo.
“It’s exciting. The girls played really well today,” said Scardillo.
Senior captain Angelica Mazzola helped carry her team to victory with four goals, two assists, and five grounders. “I feels really good. It’s been a long season of hard work,” said Mazzola. “So it’s definitely good to win.”
NEC led after just two minutes of play, but the Spartans responded by scoring four of the games next five goals. Amanda Flodstrom contributed two goals, and JenniLee Mark and Sarah Clark each added one.
NEC’s Sarah Merrill broke the Spartans scoring streak when she scored an unassisted goal with just nine minutes remaining in the half.
The Spartans came back with four more as Mazzola scored two and Mark and Kate Auer each put in one. NEC scored two more to end the half in the last two minutes of play with another unassisted goal by Merrill and a goal by Chantale Lacroix from teammate Amanda Naimie.
Castleton started off the second half strong after two free-position goals by Mazzola and Blake Wardwell, back-to-back.
NEC responded less than a minute later with an unassisted goal by Emily Bamberger.
The Spartans came back quick with three more goals in less than two minutes.
The pilgrim’s broke up the Spartans streak when Sarah Merrill scored a few minutes later, but soon thereafter, the Spartans responded by scoring the next five. Flodstrom and Auer each contributed two, while Mazzola scored one.
NEC tried making a rebuttal in the last minute and a half of play, when Lacroix and Naimie each scored unassisted goals, however, it wasn’t enough to top the Spartans.
Freshman goalie Kelsey McDonald was in net for the Spartans for all 60 minutes of play, making 15 saves on the game. Rebecca Harvey was goaltending for NEC and made 12 saves.
“It was a lot of pressure, and I didn’t sleep,” said McDonald. “We walked into this game and at first we were kind of shaky, but we gained our momentum and we kept going. We didn’t stop.”
Receiving tournament MVP was Mazzola, the only senior the Spartans are losing after this season.
“I didn’t want the season to end today, that would have been totally devastating,” said Mazzola.
Also making the All-Tournament Team from Castleton was Auer, Samantha Bonasera, and JenniLee Mark.
The Spartans improve to 11-6 and will advance to take on Morrisville State in the NAC title game.
“They were a great team and put a lot of pressure on us today,” said coach Scardillo. “We need to work on controlling the ball under pressure against Morrisville.”
If the Spartans can win their next game against Morrisville, Castleton will receive a berth in the NCAA tournament. The Spartans will host the game on May 5.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Previous post Obama v. Romney – who is the lesser evil?
Next post Softball season ends 15-1 in NAC