TROY, N.Y. – Freshman Rachel Preusser tallied a goal in each half to lead the Castleton State College field hockey team to a 3-1 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) on Wednesday at Harkness Field. The Spartans are now 11-6 overall, while the Engineers drop to 4-12 on the season.
The visiting Spartans grabbed a 1-0 lead early in the contest as Preusser (Craryville, NY/Taconic Hills) scored in the ninth minute. Taking a feed from senior Courtney Nolan (Spring Lake Heights, NJ/Manasquan), Preusser carried the ball into the circle, ducking around one defender for a point-blank shot at RPI keeper Briana Earle (Baldwinsville, NY/C.W. Baker).
Rensselaer, which held a 10-5 advantage in shots for the first half, had its chances to even things up in the frame, but could not get one past senior goalie Siobhan Whittemore (Springfield,VT/Springfield), who made five stops in the opening half.
In the second half, RPI finally got on the board as freshman Kierstan Ryan (Levittown, PA/Harry S. Truman) tallied in the 40th minute. Senior Jessica Corrigan (South Burlington, VT/South Burlington) earned the assist after she collected the ball from junior Erika Hawksley (Windsor, ME/Erskine Academy) at the top of the circle, drawing the goalie out. She then passed the ball to Ryan at the right corner, who tapped it into the open net.
Preusser then added her second of the game in the 60th minute after she fired the ball into play off her own corner. Senior Sarah Flore (Springfield, VT/Springfield) settled it at the top of the circle before passing it in to junior Stephanie Paproski (Newtown, CT/Newtown), who was just five yards out. Finding Preusser at the corner of the box, she sent it up to her for the goal past Earle.
Spartans pushed the lead to two (3-1) less than a minute later as Paproski found the rebound of a shot by Flore and fired it into the box in the 61st minute. The Engineers tried to get one back late in the game, but Whittemore and the Castleton State defense held strong with a number of blocked shots.
In goal, Whittemore stopped six shots to pick up the victory, while Earle made 13 saves in the loss for the Engineers, including 10 in the second half.
Rensselaer wraps up its regular season on Saturday in a 6pm match at Stevens Institute of Technology. Castleton State concluded its regular season schedule with tonight’s match, but will return to action on Saturday hosting Thomas in the NAC Quarterfinals (4:30pm).
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