Contact: Mike Zimmerman
Hamilton, NY — 15-8-2, tied with the third-ranked team in the country for fourth in the ECAC, ranked 14th in the country, we’re talking about the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø men’s hockey team right’ Wrong. While the men’s team has generated excitement the past few weeks with its outstanding play and moved into the national polls, its 51³Ô¹ÏÍø’s women’s hockey team that has flown under the radar during its most successful Division I season.
51³Ô¹ÏÍø has won three more games than it did all of last season, and two more league games than last season’s total of four. The Raiders have scored as many goals (70) in 25 games as they did in 34 contests last season. The biggest improvement may be the defense, after allowing 126 goals in 2002-03, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø has surrendered just 54 this season.
The Raiders have battled all season with top ranked opponents, but have yet to get over the hump and make a huge statement with a large win. With eight league games to play and six against ranked opponents, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø has that opportunity.
The drive begins this weekend at Starr Rink, when third-ranked Harvard and 11th ranked Brown come to Hamilton. Earlier this season the Raiders dropped a close 3-1 game to Brown in which the Bears scored an empty-net goal with just a few seconds to play. The following day, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø held one of the most potent offenses in women’s college hockey, Harvard, to just two goals in a 2-0 loss.
You might say, ‘big deal’, they lost, but when you consider just last season Scott Wiley’s club lost to those two opponents by a combined score of 25-2, one can see the improvement. Wiley knows his team is going to have to give that extra effort to knock off the elite. ‘We fought hard this season against the likes of Harvard, Dartmouth, Princeton and Brown, we just need to work that much harder to earn some victories,’ remarked Wiley.
Down the stretch the Raiders travel to Yale and Princeton and to Canton, N.Y. for two games with the sixth-ranked Saints of St. Lawrence. They close out the season with two home games versus Vermont and Dartmouth. Earlier this season, 51³Ô¹ÏÍø defeated Vermont and Yale, a team that 51³Ô¹ÏÍø will look for its first ever season sweep against. The Raiders dropped a close 2-1 decision to Princeton and an exciting 4-2 loss to the Big Green at Thompson Arena a few weeks ago.
The women’s squad knows it takes hard work to achieve new goals and that work begins this weekend in Starr Rink against the Crimson and the Bears.