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WILLIAMSTOWN, MA -- The
4th ranked Trinity College Bantams came to the Lansing
Chapman Rink Sunday afternoon, and the Ephs skated away with their
biggest win of the season, 3-2. The Williams
women were backboned by a spectacular performance by senior
goaltender Sara Plunkett.
The Ephs got off to a quick start in the first
as Kate Foley slapped a shot from the point at the 4-minutet.
Trinity netminder Isabel Iwachiw had little chance of making the
save as the line of Nicolle Perry, Torrey Taussig, and Kristen
Tubbs did an excellent job of getting some traffic in front of the
net. In fact, Taussig got a stick on the shot on its way in and was
credited with the goal.
The Eph penalty kill would be tested at the
midway point of the first. They were up to the
challenge, killing off two Bantam power play
opportunities. Moments later the Ephs would go
on their own power play and they made the most of their
chances. Kait O'Brien received a pass from
Lauren Zurek and riffled a shot from the point that eluded Iwachiw
low to the glove side. The goal was scored at the 14:38 mark of the
period. Once again, the Ephs were able to
get traffic in from of the net-minder to prevent her from being
able to track the puck on its way in. With that,
the Ephs would head to the locker room with the two-goal lead.
Trinity would cut the lead to one when Kim
Weiss scored on a rebound with 13:06 to play in the second. Hannah
Harvey was credited with the assist on the goal.
The goal was not without controversy, as it appeared that Plunkett
might have been interfered with on the play.
At the eight-minute mark a Trinity player took a major penalty so
the Ephs had 5 minutes of power play time and they were able to
take advantage of it. After Trinity had killed
off the first 4 minutes, Nicolle Perry scored from the high slot to
bring the Eph lead to 3-1. Torrey Taussig and Lauren Zurek were
credited with the assists on the Perry goal.
Towards the end of the period both teams made
frequent trips to the penalty box, but neither team was able to
find the back of the net on their opportunities.
Williams went to the locker room with a 3-1
lead.
Trinity came out of the locker room flying and
they were able to quickly jump on the
scoreboard. At the 5:10 mark of the third Jill
Roloff tipped a shot off the stick of Laura Lomarek past Sara
Plunkett for the power play goal. Britney Ryan was also awarded an
assist of the Roloff goal. As time went on in
the period Trinity continued to pressure the Ephs, but the Ephs
rose to the occasion and held the Bantams scoreless over the final
15 minutes to pull out the 3-2 victory.
After the game, Coach O'Neil was very
pleased with the effort her team put forth.
“This was the first game where we played our hearts out each
period. We were able to persevere through the many momentum changes
and continue to play our game.” She went
on to say, “Our forecheck was excellent tonight and our
special teams came through when we needed them
to. It was an all-around team effort with
everyone contributing to the hard-fought victory.”
The victory brings the Ephs record to 8-7-2,
while the loss drops the Bantams record to 14-3-2.
The Ephs once again got excellent goaltending
by Sara Plunkett as she finished with 38 saves.
Meanwhile, Isabel Iwachiw did a fine job in net for Trinity
finishing with 17 saves.
Williams will be back in action on Tuesday
when they travel to Fairfield, CT to take on Sacred Heart
University in a non-conference game.
The Ephs will resume NESCAC play next Friday when they travel to
Hamilton College. They will be at Connecticut
College on Saturday afternoon.
