Box Score
Postgame Press Conference

ITHACA, N.Y. - The Mercyhurst University women's hockey team is going back to the Frozen Four.

Freshman Jenna Dingledein's 15th goal of the season, 4:49 into overtime, gave Mercyhurst a hard-fought 4-3 win over Cornell Saturday in its NCAA Quarterfinal game. The goal capped an exciting contest and sends the Lakers (29-6-1) to the National Semifinals next weekend in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Big Red, ranked 2^nd nationally entering play, ended their season 27-6-1.
 
Mercyhurst, blanked at Cornell, 4-0, on January 29, scored the lone goal of the first period when senior Gina Buquet banged home a loose puck in front past Cornell netminder, Lauren Slebodnick, at 8:34. Buquet's sixth lamplighter of the season was helped by senior Jenna Hendrikx and junior Christine Bestland. Mercyhurst improved to 26-1-0 when scoring the first goal of the contest.
 
The Lakers, held to 19 shots by the Big Red in January's loss, outshot Cornell 16-7 in the first twenty minutes.
 
Cornell rallied to take a 2-1 lead in a penalty-filled second period. ECAC Hockey Player of the Year, Brianne Jenner, fired a shot past Mercyhurst senior Stephanie Ciampa, during a 5-on-3 at 12:29.  Then, with the period winding down, winger Jess Brown beat Ciampa during a goal-mouth scramble with just under a minute left. Nine penalties were called in the middle frame, five to Mercyhurst. Second period shots were even at 11 apiece.
 
A pair of Mercyhurst defensemen, one a senior and the other a sophomore, regained the lead for Mercyhurst in a back-and-forth third.  Senior Stephanie DeSutter tied the game on a rebound from in close with her eighth goal of the year at 7:29 while sophomore Caroline Luczak brought the Mercyhurst crowd to its feet when she scored on a blast from the left circle that deflected off a Cornell skater with 73 seconds left in regulation. Luczak's go-ahead goal was helped by senior Kelsey Welch while DeSutter's game-tying tally was aided by Dingledein and Bestland.
 
But the ensuing face-off brought an icing against Mercyhurst, allowing the Big Red to pull Slebodnick for an extra attacker. Jenner won a face-off in the Mercyhurst end and linemate Jillian Saulnier slapped one past Ciampa from the right point to knot the game at 3.
 
That set the stage for Dingledein's heroics. With nearly five minutes gone in the extra session, DeSutter calmly passed the puck to freshman defenseman Lauren Kilroy at the right point. The freshman took a shot from the right point that was blocked in front of the Cornell goal. The puck eventually found Dingledein's stick and the freshman slid it by Slebodnick to end the contest.
 
The Lakers outshot Cornell 34-32 in the game and were 0 for 5 on the power play. The Big Red finished 1 for 5. Ciampa improved to 20-1-0 on the season as she won for the 11^th straight time.
 
Mercyhurst snapped a two-game losing streak against Cornell and improved to 14-5-1 lifetime against the Big Red. More importantly, the win snapped a streak of four-overtime losses in NCAA play for the Lakers and avenged a 3-2 upset to the Big Red in the National Semifinals three years ago in Minneapolis. The win also marked the first road NCAA quarterfinal win for the Lakers.
 
Mercyhurst reaches the Frozen Four for the third time in program history, the first time since 2010, and is 1-1 lifetime in semifinal action. The Lakers defeated Minnesota 5-4 at Boston University in 2009 to advance to the championship game that season. Cornell then eliminated the Lakers 3-2 in overtime a year later in Minneapolis.
 
Next weekend's semifinals are set for Friday, March 22 and the winner will move on to the championship round on Sunday, March 24.  Mercyhurst will take on Boston University in the semifinals, as the Terriers knocked off Clarkson 5-3 on Saturday. Time of the contest is to be determined.