The MCLA Women’s Soccer team was defeated by Vermont State Castleton University’s Spartans on September 18, at Shewcraft Field. Castleton had five shot attempts on goalie Mallory Amirian ‘28 within the first 15 minutes of the first period, their fifth attempt being a goal for Maggie Mckearin ‘26, her third goal of the season. By the 20-minute mark in the first period, Castleton had 2 more shot attempts and the opportunity for a goal kick for Rylee Pepin ‘25. Pepin scored the goal kick, upping the score to 2-0 in Castleton’s favor. The rest of the first period finished with no goals scored, but with shot attempts from Trailblazers Catelyn Hodge ‘28 and Addison Gates ‘27.
To start the second period, Castleton brough the heat by firing off eight shot attempts at Amirian within the first seven minutes. The last two of those seven shots were put in by Castleton’s Alexis Billings ‘25, for her seventh goal of the season, and again by Maggie Mckearin ‘26, for her second goal of the game, fourth of the season.
The Lady Trailblazers began to match Castleton’s intensity 30 minutes into the second period. Kylie DeMaio ‘27 scored for the Trailblazers on an assist from Gwendolyn Duggan ‘27 to earn her second goal of the season. DeMaio and Duggan have worked extremely well together this season: this is the second time Duggan has assisted DeMaio to score. When asked about the feeling they have when working together on the field, DeMaio applauded Duggans’s ability to serve her the ball on a “silver platter” and gives credit to her teammates for the goal, saying she “couldn’t have done that without every one of them.” Duggan explained that she and DeMaio have always worked well together on the field and it just “feels natural” to play together. Both players are in their sophomore years and say the biggest change from last year is the speed of the game, and how much closer knit their team has become. When looking forward to the second half of their season, both DeMaio and Duggan seek to bring more confidence and, hopefully, secure a win.
The final score of the Castleton game was 4-1 with Castleton taking home the win. This left their record as 4-2-0 and Trailblazer’s record as 0-5-0.
