Sometimes even the most skillful athletic performances don’t earn a victory. So it was in the meeting between the Little Three rivals Wesleyan and Amherst in women’s hockey this past weekend. Despite a bevy of stellar individual performances and some great skating as a team, the Cardinals ultimately fell to the Lord Jeffs in both matches.

Women’s hockey does not have the best history against Amherst. In their previous 10 meetings, the Cardinals have been completely shut out of scoring. The squad was able to break that unlucky streak in their match on Friday, Nov. 30. Wesleyan skated quite well throughout the match, but still fell short by a margin of 2-1.

Amherst took the lead early, scoring on a power play in the first period and scoring again midway through the second period. Lilah Fones ’15 netted Wesleyan’s only goal of the game in the third period, sneaking the puck past the Amherst goalie with a well-placed shot over the shoulder. Mackey Hemphill ’15 and Kelsey Muller ’13 assisted Fones in her efforts. This marked Muller’s first game after returning from abroad, and her offensive talents will be sure to help the team in future matches. With 1:25 left in the match, the Cardinals emptied the net in the hopes of scoring with an extra skater. Unfortunately, victory was just not in the cards for Wesleyan and the match ended with a 2-1 score in favor of Amherst.

Once again, the superb goal-tending skills of Ashleigh Corvi ’13 kept Wesleyan in the game. Corvi had 30 saves in the first game against Amherst, marking the fifth-straight game in which she tallied over 30 blocks. In regard to their efforts on Friday, Corvi had a positive outlook and has high hopes for the future efforts of her team.

“I think we’re at the point where we’ve proven that we are a new team,” Corvi said. “However, in order to continue to see those results, we need to believe that we can skate with any team in the league. We went into the game Friday knowing we were better, but not believing it until 20 minutes into the game when we came back into the locker room tied 0-0 with a team that’s always on top of the NESCAC. That’s the difference from previous seasons—going into the game with the mindset that we can beat any opponent.”

Saturday, Dec. 1 saw the conclusion of a set between the two Little Three rivals. Two well-crafted power plays on the part of the Lord Jeffs ultimately led to the Cardinals’ downfall. Late in the second period, Amherst scored two goals on a couple of power plays, first a four-on-three and later a five-on-four. If Wesleyan had any hopes of stopping the bleeding in the second, they were dashed just before the buzzer on yet another Amherst goal, this one with both teams at even strength. The Cardinals responded in the third period with a goal by freshman Laura Mead, the first of her collegiate career. Aiding with assists were Becca Koppel ’13 and Glenn Hartman-Mattson ’14. The Cardinals pulled Corvi, who ended the match with 27 saves, out of the net for the final two minutes in a desperate comeback attempt. Despite these efforts, Amherst ended the game with a 3-1 victory.

Co-captain Koppel is optimistic about the team’s efforts this weekend and about moving forward.

“In this weekend’s games against Amherst, our team played very well,” she said. “Although the first game’s score was closer, I personally felt as though we played better overall on Saturday. The penalties that we received on Saturday were what killed us. After the three goals were scored, our team responded and entered the third period with tons of energy, which is what helped us score our goal. Overall, the team played very well as a whole, which is what enabled us to have such close games against such a good team.”

Wesleyan will be at home for its next match, facing Nichols College on Tuesday, Dec. 4.