CASTLETON — Colby-Sawyer College fell to Castleton University, 12-10, in the North Atlantic Conference (NAC) Women’s Lacrosse Championship game at Spartan Stadium on a seasonable Saturday evening.
Castleton Improves to 11-6 and earns the NAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Colby-Sawyer ends its season at 10-6. The team reached double-digit wins for the fourth-straight season and sixth overall.
The Chargers trailed 3-1, 10:21 into the contest, with their lone goal coming from freshman Briana Couture(South Hadley, Mass.).
Castleton’s Emily Cross (Shaftsbury, Vt.) put the home team in front 4-1 with 15:39 to play in the first frame.
Junior Brittany Ireland (Amherst, N.H.) stopped the scoring drought for the Chargers with a goal at 12:56 to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Less than 30 seconds later, senior Nicole Lavigne (Berlin, Vt.) notched an unassisted goal to bring Colby-Sawyer within one, 4-3.
Over the final 12 minutes of the half, Cross scored three times and assisted on another to give the Spartans an 8-3 advantage.
Colby-Sawyer got one back with 15 seconds left, on Nicole Lavigne’s second goal of the game, but Castleton took an 8-4 lead into the break.
The Chargers held a 16-13 edge in shots, but Castleton junior goalie Samantha Hebb (Ashland, Mass.) made eight saves in the half.
A little more than two minutes into the second half, Lavigne picked up right where she left off in the first half by scoring her third goal of the game. Ireland then tallied her second of the contest at 25:16 to bring the Chargers within two, 8-6.
The Spartans finally broke through in the second half at 18:29 on Erin Shuttle’s (Georgia, Vt.) second goal of the contest.
After a yellow card was issued to a Castleton player, the Chargers used the player advantage to make the game 9-7 with 18:10 remaining. Senior Molly Mulcahy’s (Nashua, N.H.) initial shot was saved, but she gathered the rebound and scooped in her first goal of the game.
The game went scoreless for the next five minutes until Castleton’s Hannah Braman (Chelsea, Vt.) broke the drought to put the home team up 10-7 at 13:18.
The back and forth action continued as Ireland finished a pass from Couture with 10:33 left to play to bring Colby-Sawyer within 10-8.
Castleton senior Nadine Downing (Cortland, Vt.) took a Megan Wood (Waterford, Vt.) and put it past Colby-Sawyer sophomore keeper Kailyn Lapham (Medway, Mass.) to give the Spartans a three-goal edge with 7:25 left.
Once again the Chargers found an answer 1:30 later when freshman Sarah Morin (Pelham, N.H.) finished a free position attempt to make the game 11-9.
The Spartans scored the next goal off the stick of Emma Best (Salisbury, Vt.) to go in front 12-9 with 4:18 left.
With 1:12 remaining, Colby-Sawyer’s Brittany Ireland caused a turnover, picked up the ground ball, and then scored her fourth goal of the contest to bring the Chargers within a pair once again, 12-10.
The Spartans would hold the possession for the remainder of the game and win their seventh-straight NAC title.
Ireland led the Chargers with four goals, while Lavigne finished with three scores and nine draw controls. Senior Bailey Starr (Barre, Vt.) had a games best four caused turnovers.
Lavigne, Lapham and freshman Mattie Iaria (Hingham, Mass.) represented Colby-Sawyer on the NAC All-Tournament Team.
Hebb finished with 14 saves to earn the victory, while Lapham stopped 11 for Colby-Sawyer.
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