W. Icers Clinch Share Of Ivy Title With Victory Over Princeton Tigers

The women’s hockey team had a successful, undefeated weekend consisting of matchups with two conference opponents. Quinnipiac and Princeton both traveled to Lynah Rink and were unable to score any goals on Cornell sophomore goaltender, Amanda Mazzotta. These two shutouts for the goalie set a new University record for number of shutouts in a single season, and contributed to her being named ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week.

Friday night, the Quinnipiac Bobcats (15-8-7, 8-4-6 ECAC Hockey) came to Lynah Rink hoping to uplift their 7-1 record over the past eight games prior to the weekend. Against one of the teams with a netminder whose ability matches Mazzotta’s, Victoria Vigilante, the game was expected to be close and exciting.

Indeed, neither the Bobcats nor the Red (11-8-6, 10-2-6) were able to produce a goal, despite some key opportunities held by both teams. These included a penalty-killing chance late in the third period by sophomore forward Chelsea Karpenko as she skated past the Bobcats’ defense and shot the puck, only to have it stopped by Vigilante. Overall, Cornell outshot Quinnipiac, 37-14. [4]Let’s get it started: Freshman defensewomen Laura Fortino sparked the Red’s offense in a 6-0 victory over Princeton.

“We got lots of shots, but we just have to bear down and bury on our chances; we need to keep our sticks on the ice … get the puck in the net,” Karpenko said.

Still, the players did not let Friday’s tie disappoint or shake them.

“Obviously we would have liked to come out with a win, but it didn’t come out in our favor, and we knew we had to regroup and focus for the next day,” Karpenko said.

The next day, the team was in fact regrouped, and had a quality performance, defeating Princeton (10-11-4, 8-6-4) with six goals. Karpenko led the way with two goals, and sophomore forward Catherine White tallied one goal and two assists. Other scorers for the Red included senior forward Liz Zorn, junior forward Karlee Overguard and two freshmen defenders, Laura Fortino and Lauriane Rougeau.

“It was a total team effort. We knew it didn’t quite work out on Friday, but we regrouped and worked together,” Karpenko said. “We were refocused on Saturday for the game, and it was a good one.”

One of the reasons the Red did so well on this night was because the team played the full 60 minutes out on the ice to the best of its ability.

“Being aggressive is one strength that we wanted to bring,” Rougeau said.

She also mentioned that suffocating Princeton in the defensive zone and not permitting them any chances, along with being opportunistic and capitalizing on chances were key factors in the Red win on Saturday.

“On offense we did great; we created a lot of chances for ourselves to go around Princeton defensemen,” Rougeau added.

The end result of this game not only left the Red more confident than before, but also placed the team at 6-0-2 in the Ivy League –– tied with Harvard, assuring it at least part of the league title this year.

“Clinching [at least part of] the Ivy League title [was] exciting,” Karpenko said.

“We knew that this weekend was very important for rankings and for Ivy League. Everyone stepped their game up and was ready for the challenge and full of energy,” Rougeau said. “It’s huge because we have two more games and if we’re successful, we’ll have the title. We have to take one game at a time and we have a big weekend coming up, against Yale and Brown, to secure that No. 1 spot.”