LEWISTON, Maine -- The No. 12 nationally ranked Bates field hockey team dominated play Sunday in a 6-0 win over Vermont State Castleton, continuing their outstanding start to the 2024 season. 

The Bobcats (6-2) are off to their best start through eight games since 1983.

Senior Anna Cote (New Gloucester, Maine) scored two goals on Sunday to pace the Bobcats, while senior captain Anna Lindeis (New Canaan, Conn.) scored a goal and dished out a pair of assists. 

Bates got on the board in the first minute of action. First-year Izzy Grol (San Diego, Calif.) fed the ball into the middle of the shooting area. It bounced off a couple of sticks before Cote settled it and snuck a shot past the VTSU goalie into the lower right side of the cage for a 1-0 Bates lead.

The Bobcats scored again at the very end of the first quarter. They earned a penalty corner with no time remaining on the clock. First-year Caroline Nowak (Pelham, N.Y.) delivered the insert to the top of the circle and Lindeis ripped a shot on goal. Cote was waiting in the middle and tipped it home for her second tally of the contest.

Grol got on the board in the 29th minute with her first collegiate goal. First-year Madeline Conta (Campbell, Calif.) found Grol just outside the shooting area on the right side. Grol stepped in and then ripped a shot across her body and into the lower left side of the cage for a 3-0 lead.

The Bobcats led 3-0 at halftime, and added another goal in the 36th minute on a penalty corner. Lindeis received the ball at the top of the circle and fired a shot from straight on that deflected off a VTSU defender's stick and into the top of the cage for Lindeis's first goal of the season.

Bates tacked on two more goals in the fourth quarter. Taking advantage of another penalty corner, the Bobcats expertly passed the ball around the perimeter until Lindeis found senior Maria Femia (Canton, Mass.) and Femia found the back of the cage to match Cote for the team lead with her fourth goal of the year.

Junior Lucy Norris (Chicago, Ill.) capped off the scoring in the 54th minute. Norris took the ball from a Spartan defender in the open field and shook the goalie, scoring her third goal of the season to put the Bobcats up 6-0. 

Bates out-shot VTSU (6-4) by a count of 40-1, with 15 shots on goal to none for the Spartans.

The Bobcats earned 17 penalty corners in the game while VTSU recorded two penalty corners.

Bates is back in action on Saturday when the Bobcats visit No. 3 nationally ranked Williams for a showdown that gets underway at noon.