In an already historic season, the women’s hockey team continued its advance into unchartered territory as the Red won its first-ever playoff series over the weekend. With the two games to none sweep over Colgate, Cornell advanced to the ECAC semifinals, which will be another best-of-three series held next weekend at Lynah Rink against Rensselaer.

On Friday afternoon, the No. 1 seeded Red jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals by freshman Laura Fortino and sophomore Kendice Ogilvie, and eventually preserved a 2-1 victory highlighted by sophomore goaltender Amanda Mazzotta’s 25 saves.

However, the Red was not able to bury Colgate when it had the chance early on, and let the Raiders get back into the game.

“We got into some penalty trouble in the second period and let [Colgate] grab some momentum,” said sophomore forward Chelsea Karpenko. “We kind of got focused on what they were doing too much and were back on our heals a bit.” Freshman Friday (and Saturday): Freshmen Kendice Ogilvie and Lauriane Rougeau (7) combined for three of the Red’s eight goals in its series sweep of Colgate. - By: Tina Chou

Despite a performance that was not up to the standards that the Red has become accustomed to this season, the team did come away with the women’s hockey program’s first-ever playoff victory and a 1-0 lead on the eighth seeded Raiders.

The following afternoon, the Red turned in a much more dominating performance, shutting out the Raiders, 5-0, to the delight of the home crowd. Sophomore Catherine White and freshman Lauriane Rougeau each notched two goals in addition to senior forward Laura Danforth’s goal in the victory. Mazzotta recorded 19 saves in the shutout.

The Red came out of the gates firing on all cylinders, not wanting to give Colgate any chance at an upset.

“On Saturday we really just buried our chances when we had them,” said senior co-captain Liz Zorn. “On Friday we didn’t finish our chances and weren’t able to put them away early, which gave them some hope. We knew that they’d come out and play for everything that they had Saturday so we didn’t want to let them have any kind of momentum.”

The whole weekend consisted of very physical play, especially Saturday as the Red and Raiders combined for 15 penalties.

“It got pretty physical,” Karpenko said. “They were fighting to stay alive and we were fighting to end it; a lot of penalties ended up being called.”

As a whole, the Red was happy with the weekend, especially in the way that it responded to Friday’s performance with a dominating win on Saturday.Freshman Friday (and Saturday): Freshmen Kendice Ogilvie (4) and Lauriane Rougeau combined for three of the Red’s eight goals in its series sweep of Colga - By: Tina Chou

“We’re definitely happy,” Karpenko said. “We came out much stronger in the second game and were much more prepared. It was a great way to end the weekend.”