This weekend brought another pair of big NESCAC matchups for the women’s ice hockey team as the squad took on the Williams Ephs on Saturday night in Williamstown, Mass., and then faced off against the Middlebury Panthers on Sunday afternoon, also on the road. Wesleyan returned home empty-handed, however, dropping a hard-fought 2-0 decision to Williams and also suffering a shutout at the hands of the Panthers.

Although the Cardinals have improved their game since the last time they played the Ephs earlier in the month, this progress was still not enough to help the Cards bring home a victory. The first period of the game remained scoreless, as both teams remained strong defensively and only gave up a couple of shots on net. Heading into the second period, Williams picked up its level of play in the offensive zone and doubled its number of shots on net, enabling the Ephs to pick up their first goal halfway through the second period.

Throughout the third period, the Cards held strong and managed to keep the score at 1-0 until the waning moments of the game, when Williams scored its second goal during a power play with 3:03 remaining.

Down by two with less than three minutes left in the game, the Cardinals continued to fight as they pulled their goalie for one last attempt to get on the scoreboard. Although the Cards gave it everything they had, they squad was unable to put the puck away and make something happen.

“It was a hard-fought game,” said forward Jill Reynolds ’12. “We had a lot of scoring opportunities, but were unable to capitalize on them.”

After the game on Saturday night, the Cards traveled up to Vermont to take on their next opponent. On Sunday afternoon, the Cardinals fought another uphill battle, as they took on the second-place team in the NESCAC, the Middlebury Panthers.

The Cards had a rough start to the game as Middlebury scored its first goal on a power play halfway through the first period, and then picked up a second one less than a minute later. With two minutes left in the first period, the Panthers scored another power-play goal and closed out the period with a 3-0 lead.

The Panthers quickly took control of the second period as they tapped in their fourth goal just 40 seconds after the puck dropped. The Cardinals tried to stay strong, but were unable prevent the Panthers from scoring three more times that period, extending their lead to 7-0.

The Panthers’ domination continued all the way through to the end of the game as they scored another two power-play goals before the clock ran out, finishing the game off with a 9-0 victory.

“Penalties killed us today,” said defender Becca Koppel ’13. “Needless to say, we were tired from our game against Williams, and then having to play a man down for most of the first and second periods did not help.”

After a tough weekend of battling against two strong NESCAC teams, the Cards managed to keep their heads up and spirits high.\

“It was a tough couple of losses,” said Reynolds, “but we kept positive attitudes throughout both games and are looking forward to playing Nichols on Wednesday.”

Wesleyan will head to Rhode Island to take on the 2-13-2 Bison in a non-conference game on Wednesday, with the puck set to drop at 7 p.m