MANCHESTER, NH -- In a season that has gotten off to a
disappointing start, the Williams women's hockey team has suffered
yet another disappointing defeat, this time at the hands of this
weekend's tournament host St. Anselm (7-3-1), who came back twice
in this afternoon's action to eventually defeat the Ephs (1-6-1) in
overtime by a 4-3 score.
"We played pretty well for the whole 60 minutes," said Ephs head
coach Shannon Bryant, "but we simply couldn't come away with the
win today."
After a lengthy recess, the squad (who were coming off of their
only victory of the season, a 3-2 win over Conn. College on the 6th
of December) got off to an auspicious start with an unassited
goal by junior defenseman Kait O'Brien, her fifth of the year at
13:26 in the first period. But the Hawks responded quickly
with an unassisted goal of their own, netted by freshman forward
Michelle Lacombe, her fourth at 14:42.
O'Brien was then on the giving end of another go-ahead slapped
in by Eph freshman forward Eliza Foster, putting Williams back in
the lead at 11:48 in the second. But this lead too would
soon disappear, as sophomore forward Kristen Byrne put in another
unassisted Hawk goal exactly six minutes later.
With the score knotted at 2, Eph co-captain Joey Lye committed
what would prove to be a costly checking penalty in the first
minute of the third. Saint Anselm did not hesitate to
capitalize as senior forward Kathleen Twomey scored an unassisted
power-play goal at :46 to give the Hawks their first lead of the
game. However, Lye would atone for her error by assisting the
game-tying goal, scored by her captain counterpart senior forward
Sam Tarnasky, her first of the year at 2:03. Both Williams
junior netminder Sara Plunkett and Saint Anselm sophomore Carley
Berry kept the score tied for the rest of regulation,
each helping her team survive a penalty kill.
The game was finally decided in the overtime period after senior
defenseman Mallory Green's interference penalty put the Hawks on
the power-play. It was senior forward Kelsey Johnson who did
the honors for Saint Anselm with her fifth on the season, a
game-winning power-play goal. Although they came away with a
point, another strong effort against a tough opponent failed to
yield two points for Williams.
"We will defintely have to bring a similar, if not better effort
to the game tomorrow," concluded Bryant. "We'll see how well
we do [against Manhattanville]."
The Ephs will finish the tournament against offensive
juggernauts Manhattanville College (7-1-0). It will prove to
be yet another formidable challenge for the struggling team, and
they will have to continue to skate hard and stay out of the
penalty box in order to come away with a win. Puck drops at
5:00PM in Manchester.
For full box score, click
here.
