WOMEN’S HOCKEY: No. 9 Bulldogs look to carry momentum on the road
The newly nationally-ranked Bulldogs will look to continue their stellar form against St. Lawrence and Clarkson.
Melanie Heller, Contributing Photographer
The Yale women’s hockey team (6–2–0, 4–2–0 ECAC) will look to continue its strong form from last weekend’s wins against Harvard and Dartmouth in their matchups this weekend. The Bulldogs will face off against ECAC competitors St. Lawrence (5–5–3, 2–2–0) and Clarkson (11–1–2, 4–0–0) on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, respectively.
The newly-minted No. 9 Bulldogs will face a hungry St. Lawrence team that will look to improve from a four-game winless streak. Meanwhile, No. 7 Clarkson presents one of the toughest challenges of the season for the Bulldogs.
“We just wanted a shot,” head coach Mark Bolding said to the News. “We’ve had a good start, I think they believe in each other.”
After defeating a ranked opponent in then No. 4 Colgate and No. 10 Harvard each of the past two weekends, the Bulldogs have the experience necessary to play underdog once again.
The No. 9 ranking is the first time in the program’s history that the Bulldogs have been ranked as one of the top 10 teams by the USCHO. Clarkson, however, has been a national powerhouse, winning national championships in 2014, 2017 and 2018, as well as three of the last four ECAC championships.
Clarkson is undefeated in conference play this season and sits two spots above the Bulldogs in the national rankings. However, after defeating Harvard last Friday, the 10th-ranked team at the time, the Bulldogs believe they have the recipe for success.
“We won all the battles that we could tonight and played a solid three periods,” said Greta Skarzynski ’22. “Every single shift we took it to them. We did a good job in proving to everyone that we are a contender.”
Once again, the Bulldogs will head into the weekend with an ECAC Player of the Week, as defensemen Emma Seitz ’23 picked up the award after scoring three goals last weekend and tallying an assist.
Aside from Seitz (3–4–7), the offense remains anchored by the top line of Charlotte Welch ’23 (5–9–14), Elle Hartje ’24 (4–9–13) and Claire Dalton ’23 (5–13–18). Dalton leads the nation in average points per game with 2.25.
When asked by the News where the success comes from as a line, Dalton said “I just think we always play as a unit and as a team.”
Goalie Gianna Meloni ’22 leads the nation with a goals against average of .430.