Castleton escapes Colby-Sawyer

Photo courtesy of Castleton Sports

The Castleton Spartans edged the Colby-Sawyer Chargers, 15-13, on the back of senior midfielder Tiffany Danyow who scored four of the last six goals in their North Atlantic Conference women’s lacrosse semifinal game at Spartan Stadium on April 30.

            With the game tied at nine with 10:59 to play in the second half Danyow had a free position attempt from the center hash. On the restart she took two steps in faked once then rifled a shot into the top left corner and past Chargers goalkeeper Meghan Castellano.

“I just faked her and finally got one in today,” Danyow said.

With the win this will be the Spartans sixth consecutive trip to the NAC finals.

“You don’t ever want to be the class to lose the first NAC game,” Danyow said.

The Spartans leaned heavily on the experience of their seniors to ward off the Chargers. Ashley Pelkey netted four goals for Castleton and Grace Johnson had a hat trick of her own with three goals and one assist while Emily Cross, Nadine Downing and Katie Feeney each added a goal.

Castleton won the previous match up 19-4, but Colby-Sawyer didn’t go down quietly this time.

Nicole Lavigne led the way for Colby-Sawyer contributing on 10 of the Chargers 13 points. She tallied eight goals and two assists doing everything she possible could to give her team a chance down the stretch. Sierra Schuster, Brittany Ireland, Molly Mulcahy, Bailey Starr and Grace Vosburgh also added a goal.

“Playoffs are such an unpredictable time. Every team has that secret weapon or they step up with something that you don’t expect to see and I think Colby-Sawyer Definitely did that today,” Pelkey said. “They gave us a run for our money. They made it a hard earned win.”

Castellano, who is a senior, finished the day with 13 saves and stood on her head to keep the game within reach. Castleton’s Samantha Hebb finished with just 2 saves.

“The goalie made some great saves from Colby-Sawyer. She was an animal today,” Danyow said.

Colby-Sawyer Head Coach Emily Rinde-Thorson said that she thought it was the best game of Castellano’s career.

“She showed up, she was ready to play, she was focused and I couldn’t have asked anything more from her. She really did keep this game as close as it was,” Rinde-Thorson said.

The game back and forth game featured six lead changes the game was tied 5-5 at the half. But the Spartans found a groove in the second half and were able to maintain a slim two-goal lead for the last nine minutes.

“They did what they needed to do and they just took the game on as seniors,” Corkery said about her leadership core.

“We aren’t new to this moment,” Corkery said. “But we have to remember that it’s a moment that we have to take on and we aren’t going to be handed to us by any means.”

The Spartans face New England College in the NAC Championship game at Spartan Stadium on May 6 at 8 pm.

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