WATERVILLE — They met twice last year, and there’s a good chance they’ll meet twice this year. That’s how both Thomas and Castleton are looking at Saturday afternoon’s women’s lacrosse game.

Castleton defeated Thomas last spring in both the regular season and the North Atlantic Conference championship game. The Spartans continued the streak with a 16-6 victory.

“We have a lot to work on,” Thomas coach Sarah Merrill said. “It’s a brand-new team — we have six freshmen. So the communication is just getting there. The chemistry still needs to be built. But they are working as hard as they can.”

These two teams are again the favorites in the NAC. In the preseason poll, eight of the league’s nine coaches had Castleton first and Thomas second, while the other had the order reversed. While Castleton’s Maddy DaCosta scored five goals on Saturday, and Brandi Whittemore added four goals and four assists, the biggest difference might have been senior Kate Auer.

Castleton (4-2 overall, 2-0 NAC) had a whopping 18-6 advantage in draw controls, and most of that was due to Auer, who won 17 of them. The effect was that Thomas (3-1, 2-1) was almost always on defense after a score, and needed a stop or turnover to get the ball back.

“She’s really good as self-drawing, which means getting it into the air, and winning it with a specific hand,” Castleton coach Hannah Corkery said. “But it’s also honestly just your wrist movement, and she’s just very good at it, and very good at boxing them out. It’s just kind of reading your opponent. Today, she was very successful at it, but it’s just kind of one of those things.”

Auer also did a lot while Thomas was playing that defense, as she assisted on Mariah Lesure’s goal 70 seconds into the game, then scored twice in 43 seconds for a 3-0 Castleton lead just 2:44 into the game.

Two more goals apiece by DaCosta and Whittemore made it a 7-1 game, but the Terriers rallied back to within 7-3 by halftime. Thomas made it 8-5 a little over eight minutes into the second half on a spectacular goal by Gardiner grad Jenn Day. After getting the ball, Day charged through Castleton’s defense. Although she was blocked by five different defenders at one point or another, Day was still able to fire in a leaping shot for the goal.

Castleton was still in control, and took away any doubt by scoring eight of the game’s final nine goals. Even Thomas’ only goal in that stretch was a hollow victory. Erin Nelligan sent one home just before colliding with Castleton goalie Meghan Els, and the officials ruled that the collision happened because Nelligan was pushed from behind by Castleton’s Grace Johnson. Nelligan was down for a while but ultimately unhurt, and after Johnson was assessed a yellow card, the Spartans added insult to the non-injury when Whittemore scored a short-handed goal.

It was the not only the first loss for Thomas this season, it was a 10-goal loss against the team the Terriers are predicted to see again for the conference championship. But Merrill still sounded optimistic.

“My team responded just the way I want them (to),” Merrill said. “They didn’t put their heads down at all throughout the game. Even walking off the field, they all knew that they had nothing to lose today. It was a learning experience for all of the freshmen to realize how big of a game Castleton is to us. So they’re going to come back (if) we play Castleton again, and it’s going to be a completely different game.”

“Oh, I think this game is imperative,” Corkery said. “We don’t take Thomas lightly. They’re one of our biggest opponents in the NAC, and going forward, we have to really pay attention to what they’re doing, because we definitely think that we’ll see them in the playoffs (if) we make it that far. I don’t really think 16-6 was a very good description of how well they played.”

Matt DiFilippo — 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @Matt_DiFilippo

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