The women’s hockey team recently crushed Williams’s seven-year winning streak over the Cards by defeating the Ephs 2-1 on January 20. Suffering through a six game losing streak entering the Williams contest, including the previous game against Williams the day before, victory was sweet and satisfying.
After a scoreless first period, the Ephs scored the first goal of the game at the fifteen minute mark of the second period to gain an early edge. However, the Cards quickly retaliated five minutes later with a swift goal from Wesleyan’s top scorer Hannah Jackson ’09.
“I think that is was a really good win for us because it was getting to the point that we really needed to prove to ourselves that we were better than we were playing,” Jackson said. “Everyone skated well together and there was definitely a lot of heart.”
As the tension mounted with the score notched at one apiece, the third period brought a few penalties from both sides of the ice. Unfazed by Williams’s home territory, Adrienne Shea ’08, another leading scorer for the Lady Cards, scored the winning goal with a nifty assist by Megan Willey ’07, who deftly slipped past the Ephs defenders, giving the squad a 2-1 lead they would not relinquish. The Lady Cards, taking advantage of a two player advantage, received the clutch score from Shea with less than three minutes to go in the contest.
“It was so exciting because we had lost to them by one goal the day before and we had been up most of the game,” said Shea. “We really wanted to make a comeback, so the win was nice. It was a big relief that we were able to beat a strong NESCAC team. It felt amazing.”
The remaining two minutes were left up to Rachel Stemerman, one of the NESCAC’s best goalies, who shut down the Ephs in their final efforts to tie the game. For her efforts, Stemermen received NESCAC Player of the Week honors. According to the latest Williams sports news, Ephs head coach Michelyne Pinard was overheard saying, “Their goalie [Stemerman] was incredible two days in a row. She had like 100 saves in the two games!” Stemerman’s total save count came to 49, raising her save percentage to 92.9.
Besides a loss to rival NESCAC Middlebury and the matches against Williams, the Lady Cards have not recently competed with any other NESCAC teams. Before the break, the women skated to a hard fought tie against Holy Cross, despite taking only half as many shots as the Crusaders. Stemermen once again proved her swift skills with 44 saves in the contest, almost matching her 46 saves the previous week. Both Shea and Jackson scored their third goals of the season against the Crusaders in their home state of Massachusetts.
When asked to discuss the outlook for the rest of the season, Molly Adams ’07 was hopeful.
“I think that our team has a ton of potential,” she said. “Unfortunately, we haven’t reached it yet. We are very young, but we have the talent to compete with anyone in the league. As far as the rest of the season goes, we have a great opportunity to win the rest of our league games. Hopefully we can turn our season around and utilize all of the talent that we have.”
This weekend’s upcoming games against Connecticut College are crucial to the Wesleyan season.
“Last year we tied them in both games so we’re a very closely matched team,” Shea said. “This weekend is actually very important because it’s our last chance to make the playoffs. We need to win both games against Conn. and I know we can take them.”
The Cardinals will take on the Camels at home on Friday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 4 at 3 p.m. The Friday game can also be watched through the Wesleyan website webcast at http://condor.wesleyan.edu/openmedia/webcast/athletics.qtl.
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