CASTLETON, Vt. – A year ago, the Eastern Connecticut State University field hockey team helped national goal leader Emily Harris of Castleton University without a shot en route to a dominating three-goal Little East Conference victory at Rick McCarthy Field.
Friday night, Harris had a goal and an assist in a three-goal Castleton (5-3, 3-0 LEC) first half as Eastern (2-5, 0-3 LEC) equalled its entire 2021 conference loss total with its third straight loss, 3-0, at Dave Wolk Stadium.
Castleton, which won its first two LEC matches this year by nine goals and averages over four goals a game, got a goal midway through the first quarter off its first penalty corner of the night and made it 2-0 in the final two minutes of the quarter on sophomore Haley Corlew's first goal of the year on an assist from Harris. Harris, who totalled 30 goals last year as a sophomore, added her 12
th of the season midway through the second quarter to lift the Spartans to a 3-0 halftime lead.
Eastern junior
Leah Kowalasky (Middlebury) had a chance to cut a goal off the Castleton lead late in the first half but fired her penalty stroke (the team's first attempt of the year) wide of the cage.
Eastern had 15 of its season-high 20 penalty corners in the second half but Castleton's back line did not allow any of those offensive opportunities to materialized into a legitimate scoring chance. The Warriors also finished with a 17-13 advantage in shots.
Castleton junior backup goalie Hannah Frittenburg, the starting and losing goalie in Eastern's emphatic win a year ago (the Warriors outshot the Spartans, 17-0, in the game), entered play with a 5.21 goals-against average but made seven saves for the shutout and her first win of the year in three decisions.
Eastern senior goalie
Sarah Gallagher (South Windsor), who missed her first start of the year in Wednesday's 2-1 home loss to Roger Williams University due to academic obligations, made six saves against Castleton. Two of her saves came in succession late in the third quarter that prevented the hosts from adding further to its lead and another came on a deflected shot in transition midway through the final quarter.
Eastern hosts the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in a conference match Tuesday at 4 p.m.
