The Dartmouth women's hockey team suffered two disappointing losses this weekend, dropping conference matchups to Clarkson University and St. Lawrence University. On Friday, the Big Green (9-8-0, 6-6-0 ECAC) lost with two minutes remaining in overtime to Clarkson (7-13-3, 4-6-1 ECAC) and lost again in a 4-2 defeat against St. Lawrence (10-11-12, 5-6-0 ECAC) on Saturday.
Dartmouth and Clarkson played a scoreless first period, but Dartmouth broke the tie after the intermission when Kelly Foley '12 scored a power play goal.
Minutes later, the Golden Knights took the lead with two goals.
During the third period, Sasha Nanji '13 tied up the score with his 11th goal of the season.
The Big Green couldn't forge the lead, however, and fell to the Golden Knights during overtime.
"The power play against Clarkson gave us hope and confidence that we could win and we played very well up until the buzzer," Foley said. "But some defensive lapses caused us to give up the game in overtime."
Dartmouth lost at home to St. Lawrence in its third home loss of the season. The Saints scored the game's first goal in the eleventh minute, before Foley scored her ninth goal of the season with 58 seconds left in the period. Both teams scored again in the second period, but the Saints scored twice in the third period to steal the win.
Goaltender Lindsay Holdcroft '14 had a career-high 34 saves in the loss.
"St. Lawrence was a much better team than Clarkson, so the game was more evenly matched," Nanji said. "We outshot the Saints but didn't capitalize on the opportunities that we were given."
The Big Green will have to move past its losses, as the team has a tight turnaround before playing at the University of Vermont on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
"[Hopefully] we will start winning these close games so that we can be on the winning side of things," Foley said.
Although the men's and women's squash teams suffered 0-9 losses to a strong Trinity College squad, both had 9-0 wins against Franklin & Marshall College and Bates College this weekend.
Against Trinity (6-0, 1-0 NESCAC), number one Valeria Wiens '13 played a tough match against freshman Catalina Pelaez. Wiens won her first two games, but Pelaez came back and won the final three to take the win.
The Big Green women rebounded on Sunday, completing a sweep against Franklin & Marshall (4-7) and Bates (7-7, 2-3 NESCAC).
The men's team had an equally tough time against Trinity (5-0, 1-0 NESCAC) on Saturday. Dartmouth number one Chris Hanson '13 played junior Vikram Halhotra one of the top players in the nation for five games, but eventually lost the matchup.
"We knew Trinity was going to be tough," Hanson said. "And for me, it was one of the longest and hardest matches I've ever had."
The Big Green held its ground but could not manage to topple Trinity, which remains the top-ranked team in the country. Trinity holds the longest winning streak in collegiate squash history and has not lost a match since 1998.
The Big Green swept Franklin & Marshall (8-3) and Bates (9-6, 3-2 NESCAC) easily on Sunday.
"Our main goal was to beat the up-and-coming Frankling & Marshall, which we did in a convincing fashion," Robbie Maycock '13 said.
The teams hope to keep their momentum through the next few weeks and secure wins against top-ranked opponents like Cornell University, who the Big Green will play Jan. 29 in Ithaca, N.Y., at 11 a.m.
