This past weekend, the women’s hockey team faced a pair of ECAC opponents at home as they tied St. Lawrence 2-2 on Friday, and lost to No. 2 Clarkson 4-1 on Saturday. As a result of this weekend’s games, Colgate’s season record is 2-8-2 with a record of 1-3-2 in conference play.

On Friday, Colgate struck first as senior Katie Stewart sent a pass to senior captain Marissa Dombovy who scored just nine minutes into the first period. Seven minutes later, St. Lawrence evened the score with a goal of their own. There were no changes to the score during the second period. At the opening of the third period, however, Colgate’s offense got back to business. First-years Whitney Routman and Brittany Phillips combined for Colgate’s second and final goal of the game. As the clock wound down, St. Lawrence pushed a second goal past junior goaltender Lisa Plenderleith, tying the game and forcing it into overtime. Despite both teams’ best efforts to capture victory during overtime, the game ended in a tie.

The following afternoon, the Raiders took to the ice against the Clarkson Golden Knights. Clarkson entered the weekend with a seven-game winning streak.

“Clarkson is a tough matchup for us,” Head Coach Scott Wiley said. “They are big, strong, physical and relentless.”

Despite Clarkson’s reputation and success so far this season, the team was not overly intimidated, citing the high caliber of the whole league.

“Everyone we play is really good,” Coach Wiley reasoned.

Facing such a challenging opponent, Colgate was unable to produce offensively. Although the Raiders kept the game scoreless for the first eighteen minutes, Clarkson scored two goals in the last two minutes of the first period. Adding a third goal in the closing minutes of the second period, the Golden Knights continued to push across goals with their potent offense. The score had become 4-0 when Dombovy earned the only goal for Colgate, scoring in the third period. The game ended with 26 saves for sophomore goaltender Kimberly Sass and 28 shots taken by Colgate.

Not satisfied with his team’s performance so far this season, Coach Wiley said simply that his team needed to “play better” in order to make up ground in the ECAC, a notoriously competitive conference.

“The league is pretty unique this year in that everyone is beating everyone,” Coach Wiley commented. “We are going to have to battle to make the playoffs.”

In looking to improve his team’s performance, Coach Wiley cited the importance of limiting the number of turnovers that his team allows and capitalizing on scoring opportunities. Despite a need for improvement in several areas of the game, he did recognize that his two goaltenders had been putting in consistently solid performances so far this season.

Next weekend, Colgate will continue on their string of ECAC matches, taking to the road, as they face Quinnipiac on Friday and Princeton on Saturday.