Colgate women’s hockey team played the Niagara Purple Eagles in a two-game se­ries last weekend. Colgate fell to Niagara 2-1 in the first competition last Friday af­ternoon but bounced back to win 4-1 on Saturday afternoon. Both games were played at Starr Rink.

In Friday’s game, Niagara got on the score­board early in the first period, scoring the first goal of the game at the 5:38 mark. Niagara’s Natasha Friar received a pass from May Wilker­son to slide the puck past senior goaltender Lisa Plenderleith to give the Purple Eagles a 1-0 lead.

Colgate quickly answered back when soph­omore forward Jenna Klynstra won the faceoff and passed the puck back to sophomore for­ward Brittany Phillips, who then beat goalten­der Jenni Bauer in the closing seconds of the period to tie the game 1-1.

In the second period, the Raiders came out strong, outshooting the Purple Eagles 12-5, but both teams went scoreless, taking the 1-1 tie into the third stanza.

With 3:56 remaining in the closing frame, Niagara was able to find the back of the net with an attack by Kristen Richards, securing the 2-1 win over the Raiders.

The following day, Colgate came out ready for revenge and started the game with a bang, outshooting the Purple Eagles 12-6 in the first 20 minutes of play. With less than two min­utes remaining in the first period, senior co-captain Jessi Waters scored the first goal of the game, finding the net at the 18:44 mark. Wa­ters picked up a loose puck in the crease and sneaked it past Niagara’s Sarah Moses, giving the Raiders a 1-0 lead at the closing of the first period. Senior co-captain Hannah Milan and sophomore defender Jordan Brickner were credited with the assists.

In the second frame, Colgate came out with the same fire it had in the first period, finding the net early with a second goal at the 2:27 mark and putting the score at 2-0. Sopho­more defender Jessica Hootz fired a shot at the net only to be deflected by Moses, but Phil­lips pounced on the rebound and hammered it home.

The Raiders were on fire and used the mo­mentum from the first two goals of the game to go on and score two more in the third period. First-year Rachel Walsh scored the first goal at the 12:17 mark with help from teammates Phillips and Hootz.

“My goal started with a great play by Jes­sica Hootz to send Brittany Phillips on the break with the puck,” Walsh said. “After being steered into the corner, Phillips backhanded the puck to me in the slot where I then slid it between the Niagara defender’s feet and through the goalie’s five-hole.”

Minutes later, first-year forward Joc­elyn Simpson scored the second goal of the third stanza, with assists from Brickner and first-year defender Shannon Doyle.

Niagara finally answered back with a late goal from Erica Owczarczak at the 18:52 mark, thus ending junior goaltender Kim Sass’s shutout bid, but it was too late for the Purple Eagles to make up the three-goal deficit in the time remaining. Colgate won the sec­ond game of the two-game series and managed to salvage a split for the weekend.

“The whole team played extremely well on Saturday,” Walsh said. “We played solid de­fense and moved the puck very well [through­out the game]. This consistent play allowed us to capitalize on four scoring chances and win the game by a decent margin.”

Colgate will host ECAC Hockey oppo­nents Quinnipiac University tomorrow at 3 p.m. and Princeton University on Saturday at the same time. Next Tuesday, the Raiders will host local rival Syracuse University for a 7 p.m. tilt and then travel to Erie, PA to take on the No. 4 Mercyhurst Lakers on Saturday November 27 at 2 p.m.