The Plymouth State Women’s lacrosse team came out of Castleton State College with a 13-9 win, to improve their overall record to 3-2. Not only does this give the Panthers a three game winning streak, but it also gives them their first victory in New England after capturing two wins in North Carolina and Virginia.
PSU started the game off extremely well, as Molly Gleason (Haverhill, MA), Emily Tilton (Cranston, R.I.) and Amy MacDonald (Hull, MA) scored the first three goals of the game in the first 4:24 of the contest. Castleton came back to score two goals a few minutes later, but Caroline Vonachen (Framingham, MA)) put the Panthers back up by two. Unfortunately for Plymouth, Castleton scored 4 of the next five goals to give the Spartans a 6-5 lead, but Gleason and Vonachen found the back of the net for their second goals of the game to give the Panthers a 7-6 lead heading into halftime.
Knowing that Castleton had scored the majoirty of the the goals to end the first half, PSU knew they had to open up the second frame with the ability to find the net. Almost seven minutes into the period, Tilton had her second goal of the game to kick start the offense for Plymouth, and, despite Castleton scoring the next goal, the Panthers were able to score the next five goals of them game. Tilton, MacDonald and Vonachen were the goal scorers to give the Panthers a 13-7 lead.
All that PSU needed to do to solidify the win, was to play great defense. Senior Captain Lorin Field (Hollis, N.H.) had a number of big saves in the later part of the second half to ultimately give Plymouth the 13-9 victory. Her eleven saves helped the Panthers capture the win, and was a season high thus far for the 2014 season.
For the game, Vonachen had six ground balls to go with her three goals, while she and MacDonald each had a team leading three caused turnovers apiece. Molly Gleason and Rachel Fistori (Medford, MA) both had solid days near the draw circle, as the captured a combined ten draw controls. Freshman Jordyn Godfrey (Glenville, N.Y.) had a goal and two assists in the contest as well, one of the assists being a beautiful play that led to one of MacDonald’s four goals.
Being able to capture a win to keep the momentum going is big for PSU. “Defensively, once we started to communicate, we played awesome, shut-down defense,” Coach Conor Davis stated after the game. “Once the attack was relaxed and built some confidence, we started to roll. Em Tilton went to the cage, and found the back of the net, which was big for us,” Davis added.
The Panthers do not have their next game until Tuesday (4/1) as they will travel down to Babson College. These two teams haven’t played a common opponent yet.