WATERVILLE, ME – The Williams College Ephs (6-8-0) fell to conference foe Colby College (6-9-0) Friday night. While the Ephs were able to record more shots than the Mules and had six powerplay opportunities, it wasn't enough to bring home the in-conference victory.
It remained a scoreless draw after the first 20 minutes of play with a lot of physical play coming from both ends. A small opening arose for the Ephs when a penalty on Colby at the 12:25 mark gave the visitors a man-up advantage, but the tie would not be broken before the intermission.
Opening the second frame, Colby struck first to break the prolonged tie. Katie Tang posted the tally for the Mules with 7:38 elapsed. The unassisted first goal of the night would give Colby a slight and short-lived edge.
The Ephs matched Tang's goal five minutes later on the powerplay. Eph forward Cristina Bravi (Montreal, QC) capitalized on the play to even up the contest at 1. She was set up by the duo of Sam Weinstein (Marblehead, MA) and Gabby Vukasin (Princeton, NJ). It would be the junior's third goal in four games. Head Coach Meghan Gillis commented, "Cristina, and Gabby (Vukasin) both did a great job a creating a lot of chances."
The Eph spurt of momentum was stunted two minutes later when Colby once again registered a goal to regain the lead, 2-1. The Mules second goal of the night at 14:29 came from Kathryn Shie, who was aided by teammates Samantha Slotnick and Megan Fortier.
Both defenses would hold off the opposing offensive units for the remainder of the middle stanza, and the frame would end at 2-1. The Mules managed to post 12 shots on goal to Williams' nine after the second 20 minutes of play.
The Ephs would have their best chance at retaliating and evening up the contest during the opening minute of the third, when two Colby penalties led to a 5-on-3 advantage. Eager to get on the board, Williams would dominate statistically throughout the final frame, posting 20 shots to the home teams' nine. Despite the countless opportunities, the Ephs could not find the back of the net. Gillis commented, "In the third period, we dominated them. We outshot them and had tons of great chances in front – we just couldn't find the back of the net."
The Mules made the most of their nine shots on goal, able to capitalize on two of them. Megan Fortier and Natalie Fischer found teammate Meredith Reynolds to extend Colby's lead to 3-1. The tally would come with just over two minutes to play.
An insurance goal would come shortly after when Lauren Guarente and Fortier worked together to tack on another Colby goal. Guarente's empty net goal came at the 19:14 mark to finalize the score at 4-1.
Eph netminder Rachel Nguyen (Hermosa Beach, CA) turned away 27 shots during her 58 minutes of play, while Brianne Wheeler of Colby stopped 40 bids.
Williams will have a chance to retaliate tomorrow afternoon at 3pm. Looking ahead to tomorrow's game, Gillis stated, "We just need to work on putting together a full 60 minutes to get a win."
