We’re creeping in on conference tournament time and play has never been better in terms of parity and overall competitive skill level within the top teams. We had a busy weekend as usual out east, here’s your notable events from the eastern front!
The UCHC runs through Rochester, New York
Nazareth, the 3rd-youngest team in women’s D-III (stat via elite prospects) with an average age of 19.70 and Utica, the oldest team, with an average age of 21.37, now you may think it’s only a little less than two years, but at the college level, that’s massive. It’s especially massive on the women’s side because they aren’t entering school as a 21-year-old freshman (this is the case most of the time on the men’s side, not always, but most).
Utica on paper should be able to take control of the UCHC this year, but they can’t get over the purple and gold hurdle that is the Nazareth Golden Flyers. Funnily enough, Nazareth is 0-5-0 in their non-conference schedule, but 13-0-1 in UCHC play.
This past weekend featured the showdown between the two, both games played in the Utica University Nexus Center, Nazareth took both, winning by a slim 3-2 & 2-1. Fun fact: Nazareth holds an all-time record of 12-1-1 vs Utica, but the last seven games have been decided by one or less goals (includes tie), four of those games going to overtime, one of them going to double-overtime (2023 UCHC title game). These two are arguably one of the best head-to-head matchups in women’s D-III, despite the lopsided record.
How it happened
Friday’s game was a low-scoring and low-shooting affair with Nazareth leading in shots a mere 24-19. Penalties were low, all occurring in the final period of play, two on the Pioneers, one on Nazareth.
Utica opened the scoring up at 8:40 in the 1st period, Erica Sloan. This would be answered by Nazareth’s Makenna Wiljanen with just under five minutes left in the period (15:33) to even the score 1-1 heading into the 2nd.
Nazareth tallied the lone goal of the 2nd, Sophia Nortz at 18:22, late in the period. Her teammate Ingrid Holstad sealed the deal with a powerplay game-winning-goal at 7:28 of the 3rd, giving the Golden Flyers the 3-1 lead. Utica would cut it in half with a late goal in the final minute of play (19:38) by Carolyn Whitney, but Nazareth wins game one.
Game two was like game one in the matter of it being close (shocker) and low scoring. Another similarity, the Pioneers took the lead first, Carolyn Whitney added her second goal of the weekend at 6:50 of the opening period. This held up until the 7:17 mark of the 2nd period when Nazareth’s Ella Cedrone tied it up.
The game-winner would be scored in the 3rd period during the final seven minutes (13:33), Meredith Boettcher netted the second and final goal for Nazareth, giving them the massive UCHC weekend-sweep.
Oswego on the rise
Oswego State, led by 4th year Head Coach Mark Digby are coming off a weekend in which they defeated their “rival” #4 Plattsburgh. They got another ranked victory this past weekend against the other red/white team in the SUNYAC, the Cortland Red Dragons.
Oswego, 9-9-1, may not seem like the high-caliber team they’re being made out to be with their record, but the record is very good considering the state of the program currently and who they’ve played on their schedule. They’ve had in my opinion a top-3 SOS (strength-of-schedule) (7th on USCHO SOS – RPI) and are a dangerous team come SUNYAC tournament time as they’ve beaten both top-teams as of the past few years in Plattsburgh & Cortland.
Cortland took game one by the score of 4-1, but Oswego won game two 3-1. Oswego’s been able to get early leads this season especially against the common opponents of Plattsburgh and Cortland, in this one, they did just that, Rylee Preston scored just after the midway mark (13:38) of the opening period.
The Lakers would double the lead on the powerplay in the 2nd period, giving them a 2-0 lead entering the 3rd period, this goal was by Erika Parenti (12:25). In the 3rd, Cortland got one back, scoring on the powerplay was Kayla Persinger (10:02), cutting the Laker lead in half.
Sealing the deal an entire 54 seconds later (10:56), Rachel Corbett, who played against her sister Emma, an Adrian transfer, now on Utica a few weeks ago, scored to make it 3-1 which held up as the final score.
Hello Wesleyan
Wesleyan, coming off a weekend in which they beat the defending NESCAC and frozen-four hosts Amherst, left the weekend vs #7 Hamilton unscathed, tying 2-2 & winning 1-0 in OT.
As the NESCAC games seem to go, low scoring and defensive-battles, Wesleyan makes more noise, a common occurrence in this league where a team people think is out of contention goes and wins a stretch of games that make you reconsider everything you know about life itself.
As mentioned, game one ended in a 2-2 tie, but game two the Cardinals got the 1-0 shutout victory.
No goals were scored in regulation, we needed to wait until the 61st minute where Wesleyan’s Mairead Kennedy scored the winner a rapid 38-seconds into the 3v3 overtime period, giving her Cardinals the huge conference-victory. Goaltender Rei Halloran, who’s having a great year thus far, made 29 saves in her shutout performance.
