It was just a little bit of history repeating for the Red stickwomen as they traveled down to face No. 2 Harvard in the first round of the ECAC playoffs.
Last season the Crimson swept Cornell by a combined score of 20-1 at Bright Hockey Center.
This season wasn’t much different as Harvard dominated both contests, winning the first game 9-1 and the second 4-1.
The eighth seeded Red was just 18 seconds away from being home this weekend, but escaped with a win over Vermont in overtime to clinch the last playoff spot.
For its efforts, the Red was rewarded with a trip to Boston where it was given the task of defending the line of Julie Chu, Angela Ruggiero, and Nicole Corriero.
The trio combined for 19 points on the weekend and had a hand in every Harvard goal in the second game.
“Obviously they are the top players in the country,” said junior assistant captain Jamie Ramenofsky, “They are the best, and they showed it.”
The Crimson outshot the Red in the second game by a 42-9 margin. Yet, only three Crimson shots got past sophomore goaltender Flora Vineberg who made 38 saves in the contest.
The lone shot to find the net for the Red came off the stick of Ramenofsky. The goal was Ramenofsky’s 12th point of the season, and came on a power-play goal at 12:13 in the third period to bring the Red within two goals.
Yet, that was as close as Cornell would get as the Crimson added an empty-net score to end the game up by three scores.
In Game 1, the trio of Ruggiero, Corriero, and Chu scored a goal apiece in a five-goal second period for the Crimson. The goals came in a four minute stretch to put Harvard up by a six goals.
The Red couldn’t get on the board until a minute into the third period when sophomore Jen Munhofen found classmate Vicki Hodgkinson for her eighth goal of the season.
After the weekend sweep, the Red concluded its season with a 7-21-2 record and 3-15-0 in ECAC play. Harvard will face fourth-seeded Brown next weekend at Union College in the ECAC semifinals.
Archived article by Chris Mascaro