Erie, Pa. - The No. 9 Mercyhurst College women's hockey team used a three-goal first period and a stingy defense to turn back conference-rival Syracuse, 5-1, Friday night at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The Lakers won for the sixth straight time as they improved to 9-4 overall and to 3-0 in College Hockey America (CHA). Syracuse, CHA's newest member, dropped to 3-11-0 and 0-7-0, respectively.
 
The game was scoreless for more than 13 minutes before the Lakers struck for a trio of scores within a two-and-a-half minute span. Sophomore forward Vicki Bendus collected her fourth of the season at 13:36 and senior center Valerie Chouinard followed with her fourth and fifth markers of the year at 15:48 and 16:03. Mercyhurst owned a 17-6 shot advantage in the first twenty minutes.
 
Syracuse got back in contention six minutes into the middle period when freshman winger Megan Skelly notched her seventh lamplighter. But Mercyhurst sophomore forward Jesse Scanzano closed the scoring with her eighth of the season at 18:22 of the second and ninth of the campaign at 16:46 of the third. The latter came during Mercyhurst's seventh and final power play chance.
 
Mercyhurst outshot the Orange, 39-13, and extended its penalty kill to 35 by killing all six Syracuse chances. Senior forward Hayley McMeekin assisted three times while junior forward Meghan Agosta had a pair of helpers.
 
Freshman goaltender Hillary Pattenden improved to 8-1-0 while Syracuse junior goalie Lucy Schoedel's record fell to 3-11-0.
 
Mercyhurst and Syracuse will conclude the weekend and regular season series Saturday afternoon at 2:00pm.