BRIDGEPORT, CT -- The women's hockey squad continued an
impressive string of victories this evening, taking down the
Pioneers of Sacred Heart by a 5-1 margin. The non-conference road
win gives them three consecutive wins and spots Williams at 9-7-2
on the year, while Sacred Heart falls to 5-16-1 in their sixth
straight loss.
Senior forward and tri-captain Tracey Ferriter rattled the pipes
twice in the middle period to put Williams on top by 2, then aided
sophomore Eliza Foster's buzzer-beating score later in the final
tick of the frame that shot them ahead 4-0. Senior goalie Sara
Plunkett contributed a near-flawless performance to the winning
effort, stopping 31 of the 32 Pioneer shots she faced.
"Overall it was another solid win for us," remarked Eph head coach
Marissa O'Neil. "We've been able to find the back of the net
lately, which is nice and we had some really good chances off our
transition."
In terms of tempo and momentum, the opening twenty mintues were
relatively even on both sides, with each squad registering 6
attempts on net, trading minor penalties through the duration. The
scoreless tie didn't last very long into the second however, as
Ferriter received the feed from sophomore Hannah Systrom on a
man-advantage that carried over from the first to jump start the
Eph scoring.
But the veteran sniper wasn't finished, as she beat sophomore
netminder Raelene Sydor a second time at 7:21 to launch her team
ahead with her 6th red light of the season. After offensively-savvy
defender Allison Page ('11) knocked in her 3rd goal in unasssisted
style, Foster fired one in from the blue line in the very last
second of the period to stretch the lead to 4-0.
"I thought we came out a little bit flat in the first period," said O'Neil, "but our next forty mintues were very good, especially in terms of our puck-movement and play off the puck.... Defensively we gave them some chances, but Sara Plunkett played a great game in net to keep the pressure off us and that was huge."
Sophomore Nicole Palazzo did her best to spark a Pioneer comeback in the final period, spoiling a potential shutout for Plunkett with her 3rd notch on the season. But the rebuttal would fall short when a decisive score by sophomore forward Sarah Herr capped off a victory in favor of Williams for the third time in four days.
"This was a nice boost for our team," added O'Neil, "and the fact that we've benn scoring a lot lately does great things for our confidence. We're hoping to carry that energy into this weekend's games."
For the Ephs, another important conference weekend lies ahead, as they will travel to Hamilton this Friday night and Connecticut College Saturday afternoon. Action begins against the Continentals at 7:00PM in Clinton, NY. Sacred Heart will also travel to the NESCAC this Saturday to square off against Wesleyan at 3:00PM.
