Though the fall semester is coming to a close, the No. 6 women’s hockey team still has an intense schedule of playing before classes start up again in the spring. The Red (7-4-1, 6-1-1 ECAC) will be playing some challenging ECAC Hockey as well as non-league games between this time, including games against Syracuse, Providence and Colgate. The tough play commences this weekend, as the Red will host two Ivy League opponents at Lynah Rink, when Yale (2-8-1, 1-7-0) and Brown (1-8-3, 0-5-3) come tonight and tomorrow respectively.

One of the things that the Red has been working on is making sure that no game is taken lightly.

“We’ve been trying not to be complacent. We need to be eager and keep that edge to keep going and be satisfied,” said sophomore forward Catherine White.

Although the Red currently dominates the ECAC standings with the No. 1 rank, it must continue to work to maintain it.

“We’ve learned go into every situation looking for a challenge and looking for a win,” said senior forward Melanie Jue. “The ECAC is too close to call; every team in this league is unpredictable so no team can be taken lightly.”

In order to maintain its top position, then, the Red will try to play up its strengths. This includes continuing with the ability to stick to its own movement of play without influence from opposing teams.

“We’re going to try and keep it simple and, as always, play our own game,” Jue said. “We have a play made up of a good combination of both offense and defense.”

The team’s combined offensive emphasis of play with strong defense has been a key in allowing the Red to limit opponents to low-quality shots. During the past few games, the team has witnessed less than 20 shots on goal by opponents because of the prevention of puck movement in the Red’s zone.

Still, the team can continue to try and better some aspects of its play, such as finishing better on opportunities the team attempts. For the Red, this can be accomplished by making some quicker puck movement.

“We need to work on supporting each other off the puck so that we’ll be able to score a lot more,” White said.

This is a tactic that the team will practice tonight against Yale. The Bulldogs traditionally are less aggressive during an opposing team’s power play, tending to not send a lot of players into the opposite zone. The Red will try to focus on quick puck movement at this time so to get the Bulldogs’ penalty kill moving.

Energy is great for the team, as the girls are in that mode where they are excited for all games. This weekend especially will be a high-energy one, as the team would like to defeat both Ivy opponents subsequently.

White foresees the weekend against another two Ivy opponents, Harvard and Dartmouth, will be one of the most competitive during the winter recess. The No. 9 Crimson will most likely be looking for revenge for its loss to the Red earlier this season.

“Each game, someone else steps up, which is nice. It’s not limited to one player carrying the team every time,” Jue said.

Still, there are players to keep an eye out for. White averages over one goal a game, with a tally of 13 points so far into the season. Sophomore forward Chelsea Karpenko follows White, with eight points. Both players have been key in making goals for the Red, and have been able to do so while still comparably new on the team. Similarly, netminder Amanda Mazzotta is only a sophomore, and has a save percentage of over 90 percent.

It is statistics like these, along with what the team sees to be as great assists and game play by all of the players, that allows the Red to dominate league play and not be too far down in Division I standings. The Red hopes that it will be able to continue its domination this weekend in the final play for 2009, and then again throughout the remaining winter recess games.