Strong start for women’s field hockey
Senior Sarah Flore scored a pair of goals while fellow classmate Courtney Nolan chipped in one to lead Castleton in a victory over Ramapo College, 3-0, on Saturday Sept. 18 in non-conference action.Just 4 minutes into the match, Flore picked up her first of two goals scoring off a penalty corner with a feed from Nolan.
Later in the first half, Nolan set up Flore again to make it 2-0.
Castleton has won five straight games and Flore has scored at least two goals in each of those last five games accumulating
22 total points during the Spartans five-game winning streak.
And although Flore had been a standout
offensively for Castleton she only has one explanation for her teams accomplishments.
Teamwork.
“Every single player on our team has been a key factor in our success,” said Flore. “If one of our starters is having an off game, there is always someone on the bench ready to step up.”
But the Spartans’ streak would be broken
eventually. They fell to Keene State College on Monday Sept. 20.
Castleton had many opportunities to score early but the Owls were able to shut down Flore.. Nolan scored off a rebound with just under 20 minutes left to play to bring Castleton only two goals behind. But the scoreboard would not change as the Spartans fell to the Owls 3-1.
“Their goalie came up with a couple of huge saves, but we weren’t there for the rebounds,” Flore said.
Nolan believes the team played to the best of their ability but Keene State just had more of a competitive edge to help them lead them to victory.
“Keene State came out ready to fire in the second half and their back to back goals really gave them an advantage,” said Nolan. “We stepped up our game and I feel that we out played them, we just couldn’t get as many finishes in the end.”
Flore echoes Nolan’s thoughts.
“We played hard, we just couldn’t finish. It was a tough loss, but we played our hearts out and never gave up,” Flore said.
With that loss in the rearview mirror, the Spartans are looking ahead to their next game, which is their first conference game of the season. But according to Nolan
the team doesn’t prepare any different for this game. She says it doesn’t matter the opponent the team just goes in to every
game looking for a win.
“We just do our thing and go into each competition hungry for the win,” Nolan said.
The Spartans will begin conference play on Saturday Sept. 25 at 1:00 p.m. when they travel to Rivier College.