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Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Women’s Hockey Blanks Colby 6-0, Will Host NESCAC Semis

 

The NESCAC tournament began this past Saturday, Feb. 22, in Kenyon Arena where the Middlebury women’s hockey team went head-to-head with Colby in quarterfinal action.

The Panthers came out on top with a 6-0 win and will now advance to the semi-finals next weekend. As the fourth-ranked team in the nation and the conference’s top seed, the Panthers will host the conference championship this weekend.

The Panthers distributed goals evenly throughout the game, with two each in the first, second and third periods.

The women came out hard in the first period, tapping in two goals in 10 seconds to take the lead and raise the intensity. Sara Ugalde ‘14 notched Middlebury’s first goal with assists from Lauren Greer ’13 and Emily Fluke ’15. Molly Downey ’13 scored the second goal, assisted by Heather Marrison ’13 and Julia Wardwell ’16.
Within the first 4:15 of the second period, the Panthers ran the score to 3-0. A pass from Ugalde to Katie Sullivan ’15 saw a goal from Hannah Bielawski ’15. Greer then proceeded to net her ninth goal of the season at the 15:39 mark to boost the Panther lead to four. Bielawski and Fluke both contributed assists to Greer’s goal.

The Panthers continued their run of success in the third period, scoring two more goals to finish the game off at 6-0. Sullivan scored her ninth goal of the season, and Katie Mandigo ’16 reached number seven. Jennifer Krakower ’14 and Madeline Joyce ’14 contributed to Sullivan’s goal, while Mandigo’s was assisted by Downey Mackenzie Martin ’15.

“We have certainly become a lot stronger as a team since we started back in November, but competing against another team, especially a team we haven’t played in a while, allows us to see where we measure up,” said team captain Maggie Woodward ’13. “We have been working towards playing a solid 60 minutes, so it felt good to be able to sustain pressure, shut them out and head into the remainder of the playoffs with some momentum.”

Middlebury outshot Colby 43-19 throughout the game and tallied up one fewer penalty. Colby finished with a total of eight penalties and 27 minutes of power plays against them, while Middlebury finished with eight penalties and 14 power-play minutes.

Goalie Annabelle Jones ’15 had a respectable game with 19 saves, five in the first and seven each in the second and third periods.

The women return to action this at 1pm Saturday, March 2, for a semifinal date with Connecticut College. If they beat the Camels, the Panthers will play for the conference championship, against either Amherst or Bowdoin, at 2pm the following day.

“NESCAC playoffs are an extremely exciting time of year for us and our fans, so we will certainly be ready to go this weekend,” said Woodward.


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