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CASTLETON, Vt. - Emily Lowell scored three goals, while Gabriella Hunt notched her third of the year to propel Castleton University past Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), 4-3, on Wednesday evening at Spartan Stadium.
Castleton improves to 3-5 following the nonconference win, while Rensselaer falls to 1-6. Senior
Megan Jones had two goals on five shots for the visitors.
Throughout the first half, RPI used an aggressive offensive attack to get within inches of several goals. Spartan keeper Leah Holland was up to the task, making 15 saves in the opening period.
Castleton reversed the pace of play after coming out of the halftime break. Just over seven minutes in, Lowell redirected a feed from Sarah Wells to score. The latter sent the ball through the scrum to a surging Lowell.
Four minutes later, Lowell struck again, this time on a fast break opportunity. Casey Traill intercepted a pass to get the Spartans off and running before she hit Lowell in stride to make it 2-0 Castleton.
Pushing the Spartan lead to 3-0, Hunt slapped a shot between the legs of RPI keeper
Rachel Kaufman, which found the back of the cage. Cydney Jeffrey hit Hunt with the leading pass at 58:01. Jones answered just over a minute later with her first of the night, scoring from 15 yards out.
In the 63rd minute with the Engineers starting to shift the momentum, Lowell returned to score her third goal of the evening. The Brandon, Vt. native put away a second-chance goal as Hunt ripped one that bounced off the goalkeeper's pads.
With the score standing at 4-1 with less than six minutes on the game clock, Castleton was forced to hold off a furious rally from Rensselaer. The Engineers'
Mikaela DiBello notched a goal in the 65th minute after beating Holland in a one-on-one situation.
Jones then tallied her second score of the day at 65:25 to bring the score to 4-3. Castleton went back-and-forth with RPI over the next four-plus minutes, eventually keeping Rensselaer away from the goal long enough to earn the victory.
Holland improved to 2-1 in the cage on the season. She made a career-high 24 saves. For the Engineers, Kaufman took the loss, while making five saves in 58:01.
Kayla Bell entered in relief to clock the final 11:59 and make one save.