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Volume CXXXIII, Number 11 |
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Skaters upset NESCAC favorite Middlebury for strong season start
REBEKAH METZLER
STAFF WRITER
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| Women’s hockey takes to the ice to practice for a season full of promise after a 1-0 victory over the favored Middlebury Panthers. The 2-1-1 team will play Plattsburg in its next matchup. (Hans Law, Bowdoin Orient) |
Since the beginning of NESCAC and ECAC competition, women's ice hockey has been dominated by the Middlebury Panthers. They sported a national preseason ranking of fourth place in the country and a regular season 125-game unbeaten streak of 122-0-3 since that inaugural 1995-6 season.
However, anyone who witnessed their last game against the Polar Bears on November 21, that cold night in Vermont, saw an official changing of the guard.
Not only was Bowdoin's legendary #22 Shelly Chessie a mere memory after the performance of first-year Meghan Gillis, but the Polar Bears achieved a 1-0 upset of the powerful Panthers.
Gillis's goal in the second period stood alone for the duration of the game and the strong play in goal by Nathalie Morgan '06 in the face of six Panther power play opportunities was just enough to end the reign of Middlebury in NESCAC.
Senior Jenn Pelkey said, "Beating Middlebury during the regular season would probably have to be one of the highlights of my career. I think that the young players make us a dynamic group and if our first weekend was any indication, we will be contenders for a national championship this year."
Pelkey also noted matter-of-factly, "And my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard."
Well, if by "boys to the yard," Pelks means support in the stands, she's certainly right. When the Bears took their show home facing mighty Manhattanville in Dayton Arena, the place was hopping.
Everyone from Brunswick was fired up after learning how Bowdoin dispatched the Williams Ephs 4-1 the previous weekend with goals by 2003's field hockey Player of the Year Marissa O'Neil, NESCAC's Women's hockey Player of the Week Gillis, and rookies Jayme Woogerd and Katie Forney. The crowd apparently did not want to miss out on the match-up of the country's best.
After playing Utica College at Colby and drawing a 3-3 tie, the Bears gave fans a thrill but lost to third-ranked Manhattanville 2-0. In the Utica game, Woogerd and O'Neil scored. Topping off the scoring for Bowdoin was Jess Burke '04 who certainly wins the award for the most graceful play of the game. She performed a piece from Swan Lake while still managing to put the puck in the net.
Against the Manhattanville Valiants, the name of the game was luck. After launching several scoring chances, the Polar Bears were thrown on their heels after a third period goal by Manhattanville's Jennifer Mulick and couldn't seem to claw their way back. An empty-netter with a minute left to play sewed up the game for the Valiants.
Pelkey commented, "I think we outplayed our opponents and I think that [the weekend] was frustrating because we were unlucky. Teams get up for us. We have bulls-eyes on our jerseys. Now it is clear we have to play well game in and out. I think that facing those teams so early in the season has been a positive experience for our team because we have seen what they have from early on. Once we coalesce as a team we will be a force to be reckoned with."
So while its record stands at 2-1-1, Bowdoin is still undefeated in conference play and has high hopes for the rest of the season. The Bears travel to Plattsburg and Clarkson this weekend for more tough non-conference play, and then return for a seven-game homestand on December 10 beginning with the Huskies from neighbor University of Southern Maine.
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