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WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Despite jumping ahead 1-0 midway
through the first period, women's hockey gave up this lead and were
unable to reclaim it, as they fell to Colby this evening by a count
of 5-2. The Ephs now find themselves at 6-10-1 on the year, falling
below .500 in conference play at 4-5-1. Colby returns to a .500
record both in overall and conference games, at 7-7-3 and 4-4-2
respectively.
"I thought our effort and was there the entire night, especially
towards the start of the action," said Eph head coach Shannon
Bryant. "We skated at a good pace, but it was some sloppy execution
and puck handling that cost us this one."
The aforementioned Eph score was produced by a pretty pass from
the wing by freshman forward Hannah Systrom that connected with the
stick of junior forward Tracey Ferriter, who knocked in her team
leading 11th goal of the year. But just 19 seconds later, Mule
sophomore forward Stephanie Scarpato stickhandled her way out of
the corner and in front of Williams netminder Sara Plunkett. She
lifted a backhander over Plunkett's shoulder before the Eph
defenders could get to her, tying the game at one.
But Scarpato had only just begun her goal scoring-spree. After
Plunkett let senior forward Becky Julian's second-period blue-line
blast skip off her pad and into the net, Colby came out in the
third period and tacked on three more goals, all registered by
Scarpato. The first goal was tapped in off a centering feed from
senior defenseman and Colby co-captain Heather Nickerson, in a
similar style to Ferriter's first-period strike. The Ephs responded
to Scarpato's second goal with a power-play score, in a tag-team
co-captain effort by seniors Sam Tarnasky and Joey Lye, the former
flinging a shot from the point on net and the latter knocking home
the rebound. Williams continued to pressure for the tie, but
were unable to come up with the tying goal.
The game was finally iced late in the final period by Scarpato's
third red-lighter, created by a set-up from behind the net by
senior forward Laura Anning. She added a fourth goal by throwing a
wrister into the empty net in the last 30 seconds.
"I'm not upset with any aspect of how we played tonight,"
commented Bryant. "We forechecked hard, but that little
extra…the finishing touch just wasn't there. I have no doubt
that our team will find what we were missing tonight and come back
strong for tomorrow's game."
Hopefully, the Eph's second-highest scorer Kait O'Brien will join
them tomorrow, as she suffered an arm injury in the last period.
With twelve points this season, the junior defenseman is an
important leader both on and off of the ice.
Williams will finish up their conference weekend tomorrow on their
home ice against a 3-10-1 Bowdoin team, who will be coming off a
6-3 loss to Middlebury. Puck will drop at 3pm tomorrow at the
Lansing Chapman Rink.
