Box
Score
HARTFORD, CT -- The women's hockey squad met up with a red hot
Trinity team this afternoon and were unable to keep pace, as they
fell 5-1 to the Bantams. The defeat was the first conference
loss of the Ephs young season, as they drop to 4-1-1 in the NESCAC
and 4-4-1 overall. Trinity moves up the standings ladder and
sit in 3rd with Williams at 4-1-2 (9-1-2 overall).
The Bantams were riding the coattails of one of the most thrilling
victories in their program's history, as they earned their first
ever win over the Panthers of Middlebury last night via a dramatic
penalty shot. It was also the fifth straight victory for the
Bantams, allowing just one goal in that stretch.
Hence, it was no surprise that the Trinity squad came out skating
with swagger, putting the Ephs on the defensive early and
often. In fact, it took just 3 minutes and 44 seconds for
sophomore forward Payson Sword to drive home her first goal of the
season from the left circle. The game-winner came later in
the period when junior forward Alexa Guglielmi knocked home a
rebound for her second of the year.
"I have to give Trinity a lot of credit," conceded Eph head coach
Marissa O'Neil. "They came into this game with a ton of
momentum and they really had us on our heels from the early
going."
On the other side of the puck, Williams had little to speak of on
offense, registering just four shots in each of the first two
periods. They did find the back of the net on one of those
attempts however, when sophomore Kristen Tubbs netted her third
score of the season on a skillful deflection off Kate Foley's
blast. But that goal came after freshman defender Britney
Ryan wristed her first career goal of her career past Eph goalie
Sara Plunkett to make a 3-0 game at that point.
"I think after we finally found a way to score, we settled down a
bit and the pace of the game started to even out," said O'Neil,
"but the goal early in the third period [by Trinity] really knocked
the wind out of our sails."
Indeed the Bantams wasted little time putting the game out of
reach after the second intermission, as junior forward Jill Roloff
slid in her fifth of the year. Freshman forward Chelsea
Campbell added her first career tally late in the third to round
out the scoring. Plunkett finished with 39 stops in goal for
Williams while senior Isabel Iwachiw denied 14 Eph drives.
"We spent so much time in our defensive zone that we didn't have
many opportunities to generate offense," recognized O'Neil.
We had a few opportunities later in the game, but it wasn't enough
today."
The Ephs will try to leap back over the .500 mark this Wednesday
when they travel to Utica for a non-conference evening battle at
7:00PM. Williams was defeated by the formidable opponent
several weeks back in Williamstown by a score of 2-1.
