Box
Score
Photo
Gallery
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - After a disappointing loss Friday night,
Williams responded mightily with a 5-3 win over Neumann this
afternoon at the Lansing Chapman Rink, as the two schools split
this weekend's doubleheader. The victory brings the Ephs to a
record of 5-8-1, while Neumann drops just below .500 at 7-8-0.
"Yesterday's game was a tough one to lose, especially since we
had been playing so well recently," said Williams head coach
Shannon Bryant. "We bounced back both mentally and emotionally
today, and I'm very pleased with the resilience we showed as a
team."
The Ephs offensive attack struggled last night against the
Knights and their netminder Mel Brunet, but looked as good as it
has all year today, as they scored twice in the first period and
three more times in the second.
Williams sophomore defenseman Allison Page struck net first with
her second goal on the year at 11:01 off a beautiful drop pass by
senior forward and co-captain Sam Tarnasky. The Ephs followed up on
the power-play, courtesy of great puck movement by Eliza Foster and
Lauren Zurek that set-up a blast from the point by junior
defenseman Kait O'Brien. Her sixth goal this season came at 14:42.
But Neumann refused to fold, registering a power play goal of
their own thanks to a blocked Jasper Thomson shot that found its
way to freshman forward Nicole Alexopolous, who did the honors for
her sixth score of the year at 16:04.
The second period was all Ephs, as junior forward Tracey
Ferriter's hard slap shot was kicked aside and tossed in on the
rebound by sophomore forward Jacqueline Berglass for first goal
this season at 4:53. During 4-on-4 action, Ferriter then created
havoc in front of Brunett and stuffed in an unassisted game-winning
goal at 12:22, marking her team-leading eighth goal this season.
Neumann sophomore forward Jessica Schroeder was determined to keep
the Knights in it however, and made a couple of fancy moves to beat
Sara Plunkett and the Eph's defense for her fifth on the year,
making it a 4-2 contest.
Shortly after that Neumann goal, a scary moment occurred on the
ice, as Tarnasky collided awkwardly with a couple of Neumann
skaters against the boards and collapsed to the ice in pain. She
was very slow to get up and required the assistance of her
teammates to skate off the ice. She left for the locker room and
did not return to the game.
"Any time a team has one of their leaders go down like that,
it's very tough mentally," remarked Bryant. "It's easy when
something like that happens to lose your composure as a group and
to let the game get away from that...we reacted the opposite way,
and we were out there playing for Sam and trying to win the game
for her."
Tarnasky's teammates stepped it up for her in a big way,
particularly her co-captain Joey Lye, who Bryant said had "a
fantastic game, making smart decisions with and without the puck."
Overall, Williams played a defensively stubborn third period,
holding Neumann to just one goal on the power play late in the
period. Plunkett also came up big in several critical moments of
the game to prevent the Knights from building any sort of offensive
momentum.
"We really stuck to the game plan today," said Bryant. "We stuck
to the game plan, got the puck deep, and did the little things we
had to do to secure the win."
Women's hockey has a week to regroup before traveling to Trinity
next weekend for a conference doubleheader against the Bantams. The
squad seeks to improve their play on the penalty kill as they
allowed five power play goals this weekend on fourteen Neumann
attempts. Game one will begin at the Williams Rink in Hartford, CT
at 4 p.m. this Friday.
