MacDonald reaches 200 career points for Panthers

            CASTLETON, Vt. – Hat tricks by Mariah Lesure and Brandi Whittemore led Castleton State College to a 13-11 victory over Plymouth State University Wednesday afternoon in non-conference women's lacrosse action at Spartan Stadium.

            The Spartans improve to 3-2 overall, snapping a four-game losing streak to PSU while the Panthers drop to 4-3 on the season.

            Plymouth State also got hat tricks from seniors Amy MacDonald (Hull, Mass.) and Molly Gleason (Haverhill, Mass.) MacDonald also collected two assists and went over the 200-point mark for her career; she has 135 goals and 67 assists for 202 points, becoming the fifth player in program history to reach the 200-point milestone.

            Gleason also grabbed a game-high eight draw controls, and freshman Megan Tingley (Natick, Mass.) tallied two goals and one assist and recorded a team-high three caused turnovers. Sophomore Becky Dale (Keene, N.H.) picked up a team-best four ground balls.

            Lesure finished with a team-best four points (3g, 1a) for Castleton followed by Whittemore and Maddy DaCosta, who totaled three points apiece. Grace Johnson added two goals in the affair.

            The Panthers got off to a quick start as MacDonald scored her first goal of the game just 50 seconds into the contest. The Spartans tallied three of the next four to take a 3-2 lead, but Tingley and MacDonald answered for the visitors to tie the score at 4-4 midway through the first half. Castleton scored three unanswered goals in the final 14 minutes to take a 7-4 margin into the intermission.

            Plymouth State got off to a strong start again in the second half with a pair of goals from sophomore Kaitlyn Wilder (Framingham, Mass.) and senior Shannon Connerty (Nashua, N.H.) to cut the hosts' advantage back to one at 7-6. Following a pair of scores from each team that made the score 9-8, the Spartans found the back of the cage three times in a span of one minute to grab their largest lead of the contest at 12-8.

            The Panthers were able to outscore the hosts 3-1 in the final 5:51 of regulation, but it wasn't enough, as Castleton held off the late surge to claim the victory.

            Meghan Els turned in another solid performance in the Spartans cage with 13 saves. Senior Casey Curran (Framingham, Mass.) suffered the loss after teaming with sophomore Meg Brault (South Windsor, Conn.) to produce 11 saves in the contest for PSU.

            PSU is idle until playing a non-conference game next Thursday, Apr. 2, at Colby-Sawyer College.

(With contributions from Castleton Sports Information)

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