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WILLIAMSTOWN, MA -- The Ephwomen appeared to be in charge of
matters with Utica after freshman defenseman Sam Weinstein's second
goal of the season came six minutes into play of the opening
period. But Utica's sophomore counterpunch, defenseman MacKenzie
Roy answered with two of her tallies to carry the Pioneers to a 2-1
win at Lansing Chapman Rink. The loss bumps Williams down to .500
overall at 3-3-1, although they began the season a perfect 3-0, and
they remain alone at 3rd in the NESCAC. Utica improved to 7-4-1 on
the season.
Weinstein's unassisted scoring blast redeemed her of a tripping
penalty in the initial minutes of the game. The rookie was riding
the coattails of her impressive one-goal effort against Buffalo
State, a match in which she opened the scoring as well with her
first career goal. However, the Pioneers seemed to be awakened by
the red-lighter as they began to control the puck movement and
churn out shots on senior goaltender Sara Plunkett, who held strong
for the first 9 Pioneer attempts of the beginning frame.
The veteran was unable to stop the 10th try, however, because she
did not see it. After a Williams penalty in the final minute of the
period, Utica earned a faceoff in the Eph zone. Junior forward
Megan Sudik won the draw back to the blue line to junior defenseman
Lynny Gonzales as the Utica forwards clustered in front of
Plunkett. Gonzales shoveled across to Roy, who stepped into a
slapshot and snuck it inside the far post through the blinded
netminder for the leveling tally with a mere tenths on the
clock.
"I think we got a little too comfortable early," acknowledged Eph
head coach Marissa O'Neil. "As soon as we started to move the puck
well in the opening period...we were looking to possess the puck
more than to drive to the net and create scoring
opportunities."
Roy wasn't finished though, as she reproduced a near carbon-copy of
her first strike with another power-play drive, this one in a
4-on-3 situation and from the middle of the point, to put Utica
ahead at 7:56. Despite registering 13 shots in the first two
frames, the Ephs were struggling to generate quality chances. Utica
looked to be passing crisply, going to the net, and showing
patience in the Williams zone to set up solid shots at the net,
including another huge opportunity in the closing seconds of the
period, a Megan McMahon breakaway wrister that Plunkett got enough
of to deflect away.
Plunkett and her snappy reflexes would keep the Ephs within reach
again in the back half of the final period when she shut the door
on an open-net rebound chance for the Pioneers. Unfortunately,
Williams couldn't sneak anything by Utica netminder Jill Doherty,
who denied all 8 shots she faced in the third period and 33 in
total to earn her 7th victory of the year.
"There's no doubt we've played good period of hockey this year,"
said O'Neil. "Today we started strong and ended strong, but we have
to play a strong sixty minutes.... We had good team chemistry from
early on in the season and I know success will come for us...when
every member of the team is playing their hardest for the full
three periods."
The squad will now have 27 days to reset before putting the skates
back on and playing their first conference match since the 2-2 tie
against Bowdoin. This one will be a road battle at Wesleyan at 7PM
on the 8th of January. They will follow that up with another road
contest at Trinity at 3PM.
