Top-Ranked Women’s Hockey Loses Double-header
By Matt Fernald '13, Sports Section Editor
The top-ranked women’s ice hockey team took to the ice four times this week with a pair of two-day series. The first, at home against NESCAC rival Wesleyan, went entirely according to plan, as the Jeffs displayed some magnificent talent to dominate the Cardinals. The second, away at No. 3 Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), proved to be much more of a challenge.

Opening night for any team can be a nerve-racking experience, especially when there’s something to prove. But the Jeffs showed nothing of the sort, as they took charge of the game early on and never relinquished that hold. Just under seven minutes into the first period, senior Brittany Evans shot her own rebound through to the back of the net for the first score of the game and season. Just 24 seconds later, sophomore Geneva Lloyd powered her own shot home with a deft wrist shot.

Next to join the fiasco was rookie Ashley Salerno, who scored her first collegiate goal during a second period power play with a slap shot from the point. Later in that period, junior Ellen Swiontkowski collected a long-range missed shot from Lloyd as it bounced off the boards and stuffed it into the goal. Wesleyan goaltender Ashleigh Corvi blocked Swiontkowski’s shot, but the rebound was punched home by another junior, Stephanie Clegg.

With a fifth goal added by Swiontkowski to end the second, as well as third period goals from senior Courtney Hanlon and junior Josie Fisher, the women dominated across the board in a commanding 7-0 win. With such a lopsided score, it’s easy to overlook their performance on the defensive end: the Cardinals were held to a mere eight shots in the entire game, including just one in the third period, while the Lady Jeffs fired 16 per period to total 48 shots on the Wesleyan goal.

The following evening, the two teams met again on the ice of Orr Rink. In contrast to the previous night’s affair, the first period remained scoreless throughout, even though the Amherst women outshot their opponents 30-3. The Cardinals’ goalie Corvi was tremendous between the pipes, as she blocked all 30 shots. Early in the second quarter, however, the Jeffs’ Clegg found the back of the net again for her second goal of the season, firing it beneath an off-balance Corvi. A couple of minutes later, an assist from Clegg led to a goal from Hanlon, and the lead was extended to two. Fisher ended the period on a high note as she posted the team’s third goal with under two minutes to play.

Corvi continued her fine play in the Cardinals’ net, but the Jeffs’ never-ending barrage of shots earned them two more goals from senior Julia Koch and another from Lloyd to finish off the series with a 5-0 win. Again, the Jeffs owned the statistics: they outshot the Cardinals 75-6, had no penalties and held the Wesleyan women scoreless and shotless in the second period. Goaltenders Sinead Murphy and Kerri Stuart made three saves each for the women.

One week later, the women traveled to the RIT to take on the third-ranked team in the country in another two-game series. Although they were hardly outplayed, they were only able to score a single goal through the two games, courtesy of Clegg, against a remarkable performance from RIT’s

Issue 10, Submitted 2010-12-01 05:15:09