Ithaca, N.Y. - Mercyhurst Women's Hockey saw their weekend start off on the wrong foot with the team dropping their Friday night matchup with the Big Red. The Lakers looked to upset Cornell in their season opener, but were unsuccessful in the 3-0 loss.

How it Happened

The Lakers came out of the gates as the more aggressive team, taking six shots in the first handful of minutes of the opening period. Cornell began to find their rhythm with close to eight minutes to go left in the first canto before going on to win the period in shots on goal with 15 to Mercyhurst's seven. The Big Red began to apply pressure with a flurry of shots beginning at the 9:21 mark with a shot by Izzy Daniel. Mercyhurst's goalie, Ena Nystrøm, was able to keep the Big Red at bay in that flurry with a handful of impressive stops on her way to accumulating 14 saves in the opening stanza.

Nystrøm was unable to stop all of the Big Red's shots, though, as their work finally paid off with a goal by Gillis Frechette with 5:33 to go in the frame as Daniel and Paige Kenyon earned the assists to put Cornell ahead 1-0 with them retaining that lead going into the locker room. 

The early going of the second period was one that was tight throughout with neither team able to gain a major advantage. The Lakers seemed to make a solid adjustment during the break as they were able to keep control of the puck for a good amount of the opening 10 minutes of the second stanza. 

Cornell was able to add on to their lead, though, with Kaitlin Jockims scoring for the Big Red. Grace Dwyer played the puck near the blue line before sending it in to McKenna Van Gelder whose shot was turned away, but found the stick of Jockims who extended the Big Red's lead to 2-0 with just over 10 minutes to go in the middle frame. Cornell then added one more with just over four minutes to go in the period with Frechette getting her second goal of the day to take a 3-0 lead.

The third and final period proved to be a tight one with neither team able to score. The Lakers did all they could try to get on the board but were unable to do so as Cornell kept them at arm's length. They played the puck long to try and kill any sort of momentum shift by Mercyhurst and were successful as the Big Red ended up taking the first of the pair of weekend games 3-0.

By the Numbers

Mercyhurst had 17 shots on goals and 35 shots overall in this one while Cornell finished with 32 shots on goal and 48 overall. The Lakers finished 0-3 in power plays to move to 2-33 on the year while winning 26 faceoffs compared to the Big Red's 23. Kylee Mahoney and Vanessa Upson came up big in the circle for the Lakers with a combined 18 faceoffs won. Ena Nystrøm had a very solid night in the goal with 29 saves while several of them prevented what seemed like sure goals for the Big Red.

What's Next

Mercyhurst returns to the ice tomorrow with them set to end their series with the Cornell as the two teams prepare puck drop at 3:00 p.m.