Boris Tsang / Sun Assistant Photography Editor

Coming off its first loss of the season, the Red hits the road again this weekend.

November 7, 2018

No. 7 Women’s Hockey Prepares for Weekend Series Against Mercyhurst

Print More

After getting off to a thunderous start, Cornell women’s hockey will travel to Erie, Pennsylvania, to take on Mercyhurst.

Coming off its first loss of the season this past weekend, Cornell (4-1, 3-1 ECAC) takes a brief respite from conference play for a weekend road series against the Lakers (6-6, 6-2 CHA).

“Mercyhurst has a solid team every year,” said assistant coach Edith Racine. “They present a good out-of-conference challenge for us. We are excited about the matchup and looking forward to it.”

The Lakers hold the series advantage against the Red, 16-9-3, but Cornell defeated Mercyhurst 2-1 in their most recent meeting in 2016.

The Lakers enter the weekend with a .500 record, but has had four of its six losses come from nationally ranked opponents in No.1 Wisconsin and No. 2 Minnesota.

The Red will also be playing without key starters — junior co-captain forward Kristin O’Neill, junior co-captain defender Micah Zandee-Hart and junior defender Jamie Bourbonnais — and head coach Doug Derraugh ’91.

The trio has been selected to play for the Canadian National Team, with Derraugh serving as the assistant coach, in the 4 Nations Cup that takes place November 6-10 between Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland.

“Obviously we miss them as they are a part of our team,” Racine said. “We would miss any members of our team that are out, but this is a great opportunity for us to come together as a group.”

The Red will be sticking to fundamentals and honing in on details to sharpen up its game against the Lakers.

“We have been focusing on the little details,” Racine said. “It is the little things that are going to help us this weekend against an opponent like Mercyhurst.”

The puck will drop at 6 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Mercyhurst Ice Center.