Another great week of Women’s D-III hockey out east as more teams began their regular season play, leaving only the NESCAC teams who begin their season Friday November 18 featuring the current #1 defending champions Middlebury who host Trinity for a pair of home games. Next weekend, the eastern half of D-III Hockey will finally be in full swing. Here are some of the notable results from conference play.
CCC
#9 Endicott swept Nichols this weekend, defeating them 5-0 & 3-1. Kaylee Liberty scored three goals and added an assist to the stat-sheet in the pair of games. Teammate Samantha Fantasia added two goals of her own with an assist. Nichols goaltender Mckenzie Muir, despite giving up three goals in the 3-1 loss, had a spectacular night, making 52 saves on 55 shots.
Suffolk got a pair of wins over Salve Regina 2-0 & 5-1, as they look to continue their rise and potentially become ranked. Last season the Rams went 19-6, a program best in nearly all categories, they’ve now begun this year 3-1 and look to continue stacking wins.
NEHC
#4 Elmira rolled this weekend, getting two road shutouts, defeating Univ. Southern Maine 3-0 & Salem State 9-0. Elmira outshot USM 43-14 & Salem St. 56-6, dominating in all categories of the stat sheet. Against USM, Claire Meeder tallied two goals and an assist for Elmira and Leonie Kuehberger got a 14 save shutout victory. USM goaltender Haley McKim had a very respectable performance, making 40 saves on 43 shots. Against SSU, Elmira had eight different players score, eight goals were unassisted, except for Holley Riva who scored two goals and assisted on one. Elmira goaltender Alayna Breivogel had a pretty easy night, getting the 6 save shutout victory.
William Smith got a pair of wins to remain undefeated at 3-0. Defeating Salem State 4-2 on Friday and Univ. Southern Maine 3-0 on Saturday. It was a penalty-filled Friday night as William Smith carded 6 penalties for 12 minutes and SSU carded 6 for 15 minutes as Tea Miles was given a five-minute major for contact-to-the-head 14:22 into the 3rd period, totaling 27 minutes between both teams. After spending over one-third of the game in the box, both teams went a combined 2-12 on the powerplay (one pp goal per team). Against USM, a much cleaner game in terms of penalties, Kayla Ketchabaw scored two goals, leading her team to the 3-0 victory. Annie Hauser recorded the 21 save shutout victory.
#10 Norwich thrashed UMass-Boston on Saturday, shutting them out 10-0. Norwich led in shots 45-8, Olivia Boyer & Mikah Baptiste scored two a piece. Surprisingly, this game could’ve been a lot more than 10 as UMass-Boston had 8 penalties for 16 minutes, Norwich only took advantage of three of them, going 3-8 on the powerplay. Leocadia Clark had an easy night, recording the 8 save shutout victory.
NEWHL
#3 Plattsburgh State rolled past Morrisville this weekend, winning both games 6-1 & 7-1. On Friday, Plattsburgh outshot Morrisville 56-18 and then 57-12 on Saturday. Plattsburgh’s Mae Olshansky led the way recording four goals and three assists this weekend, Ivy Boric got a hat-trick in game two and added an assist in game one, while Sara Krauseneck recorded five assists over the two games.
Head Coach Kalie Grant and her SUNY Canton Roos went 1-1 on the weekend at home, shutting out Buffalo State 5-0 and falling to Oswego State 4-1. Grant continues to build a strong foundation in Canton, starting her first season 2-1-1. Against Buffalo State, Canton outshot them 51-22 while Sirena Alvarez earned herself a 22 save shutout victory.
Oswego State went 1-1 on the road this weekend, falling to Potsdam 2-1 and as mentioned, defeated Canton 4-1. In an undisciplined game by both teams Friday in Potsdam, both teams recorded 10 penalties for 20 minutes, going a combined 1-17 on the powerplay (Oswego scoring the lone goal). Kaylee Merrill of Potsdam scored two goals and goaltender Ellie Zurfluh made 32 saves on 33 shots, getting the win. Oswego followed that loss up with a big win 4-1 over Canton, however, both teams packed the penalty box once again, Oswego committing 5 for 10 minutes, Canton committing 10 for 18.
UCHC
#6 Nazareth, coached by Chris Baudo, swept Chatham on the weekend, winning 5-2 & 4-1. Coach Baudo had glowing remarks about his team this season as they faced a heavy turnover from last season, losing many players to graduation.
“We are very excited about our team culture this year as we infuse nine first-years into the program. Our approach will be the same in valuing the day to day process of creating identity and growing as a team. We believe the outcomes will be tied directly to our daily approach and focusing on ourselves and our own improvement. We have a fair amount of players who have earned increased roles from years past, and we are excited to see them thrive when those opportunities present themselves. We believe in our group and their ability to achieve great things.”
In response to this weekend’s games, he added: “We grew over the weekend against Chatham. Mike O’Grady’s group is well-coached and tough to play against. Our staff was proud of the group for committing to our game plan and believing in one another. We worked through some adversity and ultimately got contributions across the board in earning the two wins. Our staff is really excited about the trajectory of our team—both for individual growth and the collective–as we move forward.”
Nazareth heads to Wilkes this weekend for a pair of road league games.
Notable Out-of-Conference Scores
#14 SUNY Cortland swept Stevenson this weekend, winning 7-0 & 8-1.
Plymouth State & Curry split games, Curry taking game one 2-1 & PSU taking game two 3-2.
After this upcoming weekend, NESCAC begins play which means we’ll finally be in full swing out east. As another great week of D-III women’s hockey concludes, another one begins.
