Senior Mallory Costello bagged her 11th goal of the year, while sophomore Kiley Baran added her second score so far to help the Spartans climb back to .500 at 5-5 (3-0 NAC) overall. The Pilgrims, meanwhile, suffer their first conference loss of the year despite holding the edge in shots 12-10, falling to 5-6-1 (2-1 NAC) overall.
After Mackenzie Meegan made a sliding save to deny Castleton's first scoring opportunity in the 16th minute, Baran came through with her fourth career goal just 14 minutes later to hand the away side a 1-0 lead. Costello provided the service on the goal with a pass through a NEC defender before Baran slotted the ball home to give the Spartans a one-goal advantage.
A half hour later, Castleton doubled its lead when Costello notched her seventh goal in the last six games. The senior attacker scored on an unassisted attempt, dribbling around a defender before finishing a shot into the back of the net to put the visitors in front by two.
The Pilgrims had their best scoring chance of the game in the 73rd minute, but the Spartan defense stifled the effort en route to securing their third straight conference victory with a 2-0 result.
In net, Binkowski improves to 5-5 on the season after recording her second clean sheet in the last five matches, while her counterpart, Meegan, suffered the loss after producing five saves.
The Spartans return to action this Saturday at 3:30 pm when they host the Green Mountain College Eagles at Spartan Stadium as the finale of a men's and women's soccer doubleheader.
