The women’s hockey team continued its roller coaster ride of a season this weekend.

After upsetting nationally ranked No. 8 Princeton (15-8-2, 8-5 ECAC, 4-4 Ivy) last Saturday, Yale (8-17-2, 4-10-0, 2-6) dropped games to Brown (10-10-4, 6-4-1, 3-4) and nationally ranked No. 1 Harvard (22-1-1, 10-0-1, 7-0).

The Bulldogs fell to the Bears 7-2 Jan. 11 and did not fare much better in Friday’s rematch. In a similar display of physicality and superb passing skills, Brown routed Yale 5-0 for its 32nd straight win over the Bulldogs.

The Bears took a 1-0 lead in the first, added another goal in the second and pulled away with three goals in third. The Elis struggled from the outset and were never able to get their act together.

“We came out thinking that [Brown] was the better team,” Sarah Love ’06 said. “We psyched ourselves out.”

Brown dominated play, outshooting Yale 55-5. As has been the case throughout the season, the Elis could not muster much at the offensive end.

“We just didn’t get many chances,” said Love, who was recently named ECAC Goaltender of the Week for her 37-save performance in the 3-1 win over Princeton. “If we played like we did against Harvard, the score would have been a lot closer.”

Yale had almost three times as many chances on Saturday against Harvard and capitalized on three of them. But the Crimson showed why they are the top team in the nation and cruised to an easy 11-3 win.

Harvard skated to a 7-0 lead midway into the second period before Ali Turney ’05 put Yale on the scoreboard at 9:15. Nicole Symington ’05 and Deanna McDevitt ’03 also scored for the Elis.

Despite the lopsided score, Yale had one of its finer performances of the season Saturday.

“The score in the Harvard game definitely did not reflect our play,” Kattleman said. “We played well in the defensive zone and played our hearts out, but Harvard is a tough team.”

Harvard extended its nation’s-best winning streak to 21 games with the victory. The Crimson defense, ranked first in the nation with 1.17 goals allowed per game, limited Yale to 14 shots. But the Elis managed to find the back of the net three times — only the third time this season the Cantabs allowed at least three goals in a game.

For the Elis, whose reliance on team defense has curbed scoring throughout the season, the 3-goal output is uplifting.

“We are confident now that we can score,” Kattleman said. “We don’t have to just play defense.”

But the defense, which allowed 16 goals this weekend, will have to tighten if Yale hopes to advance past the opening round of the ECAC tournament. Last weekend, the Elis secured a sixth seed in the eight-team tournament, which gets underway March 7.

Yale returns to Ingalls Rink this weekend to face Vermont and Dartmouth for its final homestand of the season. The weekend will not affect Yale’s tournament seeding but could provide ample preparation.