| TOP STORIES AROUND THE COUNTY |
Ephs bounce back to split weekend doubleheaderWilliams Sports Info
09:53AM / Monday, January 19, 2009
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - After a disappointing loss in last night's contest, Williams responded mightily with a 5-3 win over Neumann this afternoon at the Chapin Ice Rink, as the two schools split this weekend's doubleheader. The victory brings the Ephs to a record of 5-8-1, while Neumann drops just below .500 at 7-8-0.
"Yesterday's game was a tough one to lose, especially since we had been playing so well recently," said Williams head coach Shannon Bryant. "We bounced back both mentally and emotionally today, and I'm very pleased with the resilience we showed as a team."
The Ephs offensive attack struggled last night against the Knights and their netminder Mel Brunet, but looked as good as it has all year today, as they scored twice in the first period and three more times in the second. Williams sophomore defenseman Allison Page struck net first with her second goal on the year at 11:01 off a beautiful drop pass by senior forward and co-captain Sam Tarnasky. The Ephs followed up on the power-play, courtesy of great puck movement by Eliza Foster and Lauren Zurek that set-up a blast from the point by junior defenseman Kait O'Brien. Her sixth goal this season came at 14:42. But Neumann refused to fold, registering a power play goal of their own thanks to a blocked Jasper Thomson shot that found its way to freshman forward Nicole Alexopolous, who did the honors for her sixth score of the year at 16:04.
The second period was all Ephs, as junior forward Tracey Ferriter's hard slap shot was kicked aside and tossed in on the rebound by sophomore forward Jacqueline Berglass for first goal this season at 4:53. During 4-on-4 action, Ferriter then created havoc in front of Brunett and stuffed in an unassisted game-winning goal at 12:22, marking her team-leading eighth goal this season. Neumann sophomore forward Jessica Schroeder was determined to keep the Knights in it however, and made a couple of fancy moves to beat Sara Plunkett and the Eph's defense for her fifth on the year, making it a 4-2 contest.
Shortly after that Neumann goal, a scary moment occurred on the ice, as Tarnasky collided awkwardly with a couple of Neumann skaters against the boards and collapsed to the ice in pain. She was very slow to get up and required the assistance of her teammates to skate off the ice. She left for the locker room and did not return to the game.
"Any time a team has one of their leaders go down like that, it's very tough mentally," remarked Bryant. "It's easy when something like that happens to lose your composure as a group and to let the game get away from that...we reacted the opposite way, and we were out there playing for Sam and trying to win the game for her."
Tarnasky's teammates stepped it up for her in a big way, particularly her co-captain Joey Lye, who Bryant said had "a fantastic game, making smart decisions with and without the puck." Overall, Williams played a defensively stubborn third period, holding Neumann to just one goal on the power play late in the period. Plunkett also came up big in several critical moments of the game to prevent the Knights from building any sort of offensive momentum.
"We really stuck to the game plan today," said Bryant. "We stuck to the game plan, got the puck deep, and did the little things we had to do to secure the win."
Women's hockey has a week to regroup before traveling to Trinity next weekend for a conference doubleheader against the Bantams. The squad seeks to improve their play on the penalty kill as they allowed five power play goals this weekend on fourteen Neumann attempts. Game one will begin at the Williams Rink in Hartford, CT at 4pm this Friday.
For box score, paste this link: http://www.collegehockeystats.net/0809/boxes/wneuwil1.j16. |
Your Comments
iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary. Comments are closed for this article. If you would like to contribute information on this article, e-mail us at info@iBerkshires.com |
|
Advertise on iBerkshires.com
|
