The women's hockey team shut out No. 8 Dartmouth on Friday for 54 minutes before finally surrendering a goal to suffer a 1-0 defeat. Combined with a 4-0 loss to Harvard the following day, the games continued a trend of close losses to top opponents in the Easter College Athletic Conference, dropping the Bears to 5-18-1 overall and 4-13 in conference play, good for 11th place.
Captain Nicole Stock '09 continued to shine for Bruno in goal, making 47 saves against Dartmouth (16-6-2, 13-3-2 ECAC) and 41 against Harvard (13-7-3, 12-4-2 ECAC), but the offense could not break through, leading to tough losses.
"It was really disappointing because we were so close in all the games," said Stock, a Herald sports staff writer. "We played really well against Dartmouth, especially. We came out with a lot of energy and played a good defensive hockey game, but it's frustrating when you can't put goals on the board."
Against Harvard, the "same kind of thing happened," she continued. "We were with them, (but) they got a couple lucky goals and we weren't able to put anything in the back of the net."
Last month Dartmouth embarrassed the Bears at home, winning by a score of 9-1, but the Bears were ready for their trip to Hanover, N.H.
"We just played our systems a lot better this time," Stock said. "We just had more energy and knew that the (bad) game that we played against them at home was a fluke and we're a better team than that. And I think we played much more disciplined hockey - we didn't take as many penalties."
After Brown held Dartmouth to just a 9-8 advantage in shots during the first period, the Big Green turned up the intensity in the following period to post a 19-4 shot advantage. But Stock held firm, and the Bears took pride in heading into the second intermission tied with a national power.
"I think it built a lot of confidence in our team," Stock said.
Although Dartmouth once again attacked Brown's crease in the third period, posting a 20-7 lead in shots, the Bears held firm for 12 minute into the period. But with 7:34 remaining Sasha Van Muyen '10 was whistled for hooking to give the Big Green the man advantage. Less than two minutes later, Dartmouth's Sarah Newnam beat Stock top shelf with a slap shot to put her team on the board.
After Stock was pulled from the net, Bruno produced some offense with the extra skater but was not able to net the equalizer. Assistant captain Andrea Hunter '10 led the Bears with four shots, but Big Green goalie Carli Clemis made 19 saves in the game to shut out Brown - the seventh time Bruno has been blanked this season.
Saturday's game against Harvard in Cambridge, Mass., was even worse for the Bears, as 2006 Canadian Olympian Sarah Vaillancourt notched two goals and two assists for the Crimson.
The game began scoreless for 14 minutes before Jenny Brine scored to give Harvard the lead with 5:17 left in the opening frame. It appeared the lead would remain 1-0 heading into the first intermission, but Vaillancourt doubled the lead with 17 seconds remaining on a fluky play.
"It was like a weird, pinball kind of shot - it hit a couple people and kind of floated into the net," Stock said. "I think that hurt us a little bit going into the second. I think we were down a little bit even though we had played well and were pretty even with them in the first."
Harvard scored twice more, including a power-play goal, to take a 4-0 lead with 8:37 left in the second period, concluding the scoring. Although Brown recovered to post 27 shots, Crimson goalie Christina Kessler stonewalled all of them, and the Bears were shut out for the fourth time in their past six games.
The close loss to Dartmouth continues a trend in Brown's season, in which the Bears, despite their poor record, have been surprisingly competitive against the top seven teams in the ECAC.
Bruno beat the two teams tied for third, Colgate and Princeton, lost twice by a single goal to No. 6 St. Lawrence and lost by two goals or fewer to each of the other four teams in the top seven, but still remains mired in 11th place.
"We've played tight games with many of the teams that are above us, so I think it's really frustrating that we're on the losing end of those close games," Stock said. "Sometimes it takes a little bit more to try and beat those teams, but when you're that close it just tells you that the conference is pretty tight, and we just somehow need to get on the winning end of some of these games."
The Bears will have the opportunity to do so this weekend when they begin a five-game homestand at Meehan Auditorium.
They will host struggling Union (2-25-3, 0-17-1 ECAC) on Friday at 7 p.m. and Rensselaer (13-13-3, 8-8-2 ECAC) on Saturday at 4 p.m.