Colgate’s celebrates the game-winning goal in its 3-2 overtime victory against Brown Friday night. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
Volpe Records Game Winner in OT
Raiders Prevail 3-2 Over Brown; Autism Awareness Game Huge Success
By Kat Castner
(Hamilton, NY – Jan. 31, 2014) The Colgate women’s hockey Autism Awareness Game was not the only thing fans had an opportunity to cheer about on Friday night as a packed Starr Rink saw Taylor Volpe net the game winner in an exciting 3-2 overtime victory over Brown.
“This win means a lot,” Colgate head coach Greg Fargo said. “It means a lot to our team to put on such a great event. They’ve put a lot of hard work and energy into this to make it a special night for people like Kati (Williams) and Christian (Mast), who are really close to our team. To be able to come through with a great effort and then be rewarded with two points at the end of it, I couldn’t have thought of a better way to end the game tonight.”
Hundreds poured into Starr Rink to see Colgate face off with the Bears for its Autism Awareness Game and the night definitely did not disappoint. Fans got to engage in a thrilling hockey game while also supporting a special cause. This was the fourth year Colgate teamed up with Autism Speaks for their annual Autism Awareness Game.
Despite Colgate holding a 2-0 advantage over Brown midway through the game, the Bears registered two goals in the closing 23 minutes to knot the score at 2-2, sending the game into extra time. With 45 seconds remaining in the contest, Volpe found the back of the net to lift the Raiders past Brown to sweep the season series.
Colgate (6-19-2, 3-12-0 ECAC) also saw Melissa Kueber and Megan Wickens net markers in the victory while Miriam Drubel recorded two helpers in the contest. Ashlynne Rando notched her second win of the season after posting 16 saves.
Brown (2-15-5, 1-11-3 ECAC) received goals from Ariana Rucker and Vanessa Welten while Aubree Moore pushed aside 27 shots.
The Raiders kicked off this special night with a ceremonial puck drop. Seniors Simpson and Wickens were at center ice to welcome Kati Williams, Colgate’s special guest, current team manager, and ceremonial puck dropper.
After a quick opening period, Colgate was called for hooking late in the frame, which awarded Brown a man up opportunity. The Raiders were able to deflect any attempt on net to keep the game scoreless with 18:18 left to play.
A little over a minute later, Colgate found the back of the goal thanks to Kueber’s fifth tally of the year. Simpson fed a sneaky pass into Kueber, who placed it past Moore with a wrister from in between the two faceoff circles.
The Bears were called for tripping 10:51 into the middle frame, giving the Raiders a power play opportunity. Captain Wickens found an opening from the top right faceoff circle and fired one toward net. Fortunately for Colgate it took a deflection off a Brown defender and sailed into the goal for the 2-0 Raider advantage.
Brown would cut Colgate’s lead to 2-1 following a power play goal at the 17:23mark. After the Raiders were called for tripping, Brown was on the man up advantage. With one second remaining in the penalty, Rucker was able to finish off a rebounded shot for Brown’s first goal. Rando made the initial save on Jennifer Nedow’s shot but couldn’t fall on the puck fast enough before the Bears found the net.
The Raiders held the shot advantage in the third period, but it was the Bears who recorded a goal. Brown saw Welten tally the equalizer 12:35 into the period, thanks to a pass from Janice Yang and Brittany Moorehead.
Neither team was able to score the game winner, which sent the game into overtime
With 45 seconds remaining in the game, Rachel Walsh fed Drubel on the left wing. Drubel then slid the puck to Volpe, who was in front of the goal, and the senior finished it off for the winning tally.
Spink Twins Net Goals at Brown
Brother Tandem Earn 50th Career Points in Loss
By Matt Faulkner
(Providence, RI – Jan. 31, 2014) PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Colgate men’s hockey team took its seven-game unbeaten streak to Brown on Friday night and the Bears came away with a 5-2 win on home ice.
Colgate (13-11-3, 9-5-1 ECAC) got its lone goal from Spiro Goulakos, which came on the power play. Mike Borkowski and Tyson Spink were given assists on the play. Senior Eric Mihalik got the start and made 30 stops in his first action since mid-December against UMass. Spink’s assist on the power play goal extended his point scoring streak to eight games.
Brown (9-8-3, 6-6-1 ECAC) got two goals and an assist from Mark Naclerio and Nick Lappin had three points as well with a goal and two helpers. Tyler Steel earned the start between the pipes and made 32 saves with 22 in the final two periods.
The Bears put the pressure on the Raiders for most of the first period and it resulted in two goals and many odd-man rushes. The Bears outshot the Raiders, 16-10, with a majority of the shots coming from the inside the faceoff dots.
Brown took a 1-0 lead late in the first with a 2-on-1 rush up ice. Garnet Hathaway and Matt Wahl gained the zone and Hathaway got a shot on net that Finn stopped, but the puck hit his stick and popped over his head. The rookie netminder couldn’t find the puck and eventually it made it over his head and into the back of the net.
The lead for the Bears increased to 2-0 with another Raider turnover in the neutral zone. Lappin and Mike Juola got in close on Finn and he made a pair of stops, but a rebound came out to Naclerio at the top of the crease and he hit the open net for the two-goal advantage.
Colgate wasted no time getting to within one with a power play goal from Tylor Spink for his 50th career point. The goal came under a minute into the second period with great puck movement from Mike Borkowski and Spiro Goulakos. Tylor Spink was set up at the left circle and fired a one-timer past Steel.
Brown answered right back with two goals in the span of a minute to make it 4-2. Naclerio added his second of the night, 1:39 after the Raiders got on the board and then Jake Goldberg scored just over a minute later.
Tyson Spink joined his brother with 50 career points on his 11th goal of the season on a beautiful wrap around two minutes later. He got behind the defense and Steel got caught at the near post. Tyson Spink noticed that and dove around the far post and slipped it into the net to get it back to a two-goal advantage for Brown at 4-2 with 14 minutes left in the second.
The Bears pushed the lead back up to three at 5-2 with 8:33 remaining in the middle frame with Nick Lappin scoring to give him three points on the night.
That was all the scoring for the night as neither team found the net in the third. Colgate had one chance with the extra skater, but couldn’t capitalize. Overall the Raiders went 1-for-3 on the power play and held the Bears off the board on the kill with two chances for Brown.
Repoli Season-High 19 at Bucknell
Junior Nails Five 3-Pointers in 64-54 Loss
By John Painter
(Lewisburg, Pa. – Feb. 1, 2014) Missy Repoli tried her darndest to shoot Colgate back into its Patriot League game here Saturday, but Bucknell held on for a 64-54 win.
Repoli tallied a season-high 19 points on five 3-pointers to match her high-water scoring mark for the last two seasons. The junior was 6-of-11 from the floor, 5-of-8 from downtown.
She connected on four of those 3-pointers in the second half as Colgate was attempted to rally from a 17-point deficit.
“It’s always good to have my shooting come back and shoot well,” Repoli said. “It’s a great shooting atmosphere here; I just wish we could have pulled out the win.”
Repoli finished three points shy of her career best 22 scored nearly two years ago against Holy Cross during her debut Colgate season.
“I’ve been getting in the gym a lot more, trying to get my shots up,” said Repoli, who was 3-of-3 from the arc Wednesday against Lafayette and leads the team at nearly 40 percent from downtown. “My teammates are looking for me and just getting me the ball.”
Patriot League Sharpshooter
Repoli’s two-game streak of 8-of-11 from 3-point distance has her 31-of-78 for the season for 39.7 percent, placing her well inside the Patriot League’s top-10 distance shooters this season. Only Mariah Jones (32) has made more treys for the Raiders.
Those two and Catherine Lewis are in a three-way race up Colgate’s career list for 3-pointers made.
— Jones hit one Saturday to climb to 103 for her career. She’s in seventh place all-time and just two away from tying Kara Crismale (1994-97) for sixth on the chart.
— Lewis banked one in late during Saturday’s game to reach the 100-mark exactly. She’s alone in eighth place.
— And Repoli’s five Saturday night give her sole possession of ninth place on the list with 98 made 3-pointers.
Colgate posted a 4-2 lead to begin the game but then went cold for nearly five minutes. Josie Stockill finally snapped the skid with a basket at 13:18 to narrow Bucknell’s advantage to 11-6.
It was 12-11 Bison when the homesiders connected on three straight 3-pointers to make it 21-15 with 5:38 showing. Claire Maree O’Bryan had the first one from long distance and Shelby Romine the next two. Bucknell was 5-of-8 from downtown in the first half, including O’Bryan’s perfect 3-of-3 after she entered the game with just 10 made treys for the season.
Bucknell extended its lead to 28-21 by halftime.
The Raiders were solid in every phase those first 20 minutes except finishing. Colgate shot just 20.4 percent in the opening half and was 1-of-11 from the 3-point line.
Second-Half Rebounds
While offensive rebounds were rare in the first half (four for each side), Bucknell began the second half with a pair of second-chance boards that resulted in a Tyler Craig layup and Bucknell’s largest lead of the game at 30-21.
It was still only 33-26 when Bucknell went on an 11-3 spurt sparked by four points from Audrey Dotson that made it 44-29 with 12:40 remaining. A 7-0 disparity in fouls whistled on Colgate to start the second half didn’t help the visitors’ cause.
Colgate played disciplined basketball all night but the shots just weren’t falling, save for Repoli.
“It was great to see Missy keep us in it for as long as we could stay in it,” Colgate head coach Nicci Hays Fort said. “We had great effort and great energy, but got really dominated on the boards in the second half. That was the difference.”
Bucknell finished with a 54-41 rebounding edge, but it was especially pronounced early in that second half when the Bison open their advantage.
“We were competing so hard,” Hays Fort said. “We weren’t hitting shots, but in the first half we rebounded. Right at the beginning of the second half, they just completely dominated us on the boards.
“We forced them into 20 turnovers and kept ours under 15, and we had 16 assists on 18 baskets. That’s pretty good. This was a game where if we shot maybe 30 percent, it might have been a one-possession game at the end. If we keep having the effort, it will be there.”
Other scorers for Colgate were Carole Harris and Lauryn Kobiela with eight apiece, Jones six, Lewis five, followed by Stockill and Kelly Reid four apiece. Colgate as a team shot just 25 percent for the game, making 18-of-71. The Raiders were 7-of-27 from three and 11-of-15 from the line.
Bucknell had four reach double figures in scoring, led by O’Bryan’s 15. Shelby Romine posted 12 points, 11 rebounds and six assists, while Dotson added 12 points and 12 boards. The Bison were 21-of-57 from the field for 37 percent, 7-of-16 from 3-point distance and 15-of-25 from the line.
Colgate dropped to 5-16 overall and 1-9 in the Patriot League, while Bucknell improved to 12-8 and 7-3. Next for Colgate is a Wednesday visit to Holy Cross, which lost Saturday at home to American and is now 13-8 overall, 5-5 in the conference.
Raiders Complete Weekend Sweep
Wickens, Kueber Tally Markers in 2-1 Win Over Yale
By Kat Castner
(Hamilton, NY – Feb. 1, 2014) The Colgate women’s hockey team recorded its first weekend sweep of the year, courtesy of Melissa Kueber’s game winner, to defeat Yale 2-1 on Saturday afternoon.
“Honestly, we’ve been playing good hockey for quite a while now,” Colgate head coach Greg Fargo said. “The thing we did differently this weekend that we haven’t done so much in the past was when the other team got one or when things started to get a little hectic out there we just kept our composure. We put our focus where it needed to be. I give a lot of credit to our team and to our leadership out there because we worried about the things that were in our control and it ended up being four points for us this weekend.”
The Raiders posted its first four-point weekend after back-to-back wins over Brown and Yale.
Colgate (7-19-2, 4-12-0 ECAC) saw senior captain Megan Wickens net her fourth goal in a two-game span to give the Raiders the early 1-0 edge. Kueber then added the game-winner in the middle frame for her sixth goal of the year.Nicole Gass, Taylor Craig and Taylor Volpe all posted helpers in the win.
Ashlynne Rando had another solid performance in net, pushing aside 21 shots, including a game-high 15 in the third period.
“To get the goal early on in a 5-on-3 was huge for us,” Fargo said. “You get those opportunities in the game and they seem to be the difference. If you score it’s a lift to your team and if you don’t it always comes back to bite you. We also got some good saves from Ashlynne (Rando) in net so overall we did a good job at weathering the storm and staying the course throughout the entire game.”
Both teams converted on a 5-on-3 power player opportunity but it was the Bulldogs who held the shot advantage, at 22-15. 16 of Yale’s 22 shots came in the final frame.
Yale (7-12-4, 5-7-4 ECAC) posted a goal midway through the third period, thanks to Hanna Astrom’s fifth marker of the year while Jaimie Leonoff registered 13 saves in the loss.
The Raiders and Bulldogs both had man up opportunities in the opening 15 minutes but two penalties on the Bulldogs at the 16:56 and 17:18 mark, awarded the Raiders a power play opportunity. Before Yale was able to kill off one of the penalties, Wickens fired a wrister past Leonoff for the 1-0 Raider lead.
Colgate extended its advantage 4:50 in the middle frame when Kueber found the back of the net. Linemates Craig and Volpe fed Kueber, who finished it off past Leonoff to create a two-goal cushion for the Raiders.
The Bulldogs started the final period with an extra skater as Colgate was called for interference in the closing seconds of the second period. The Raiders were able to deflect any final Yale attempt on net, however, to keep their 2-0 lead.
Over the course of the next 10 minutes Colgate’s defense came up huge with blocks by Craig, Miriam Drubel, and Nicole Gass. Rando also made one of her 15 brilliant saves in the period to deny a shot from Jackie Raines.
A late Bulldog goal on a 5-on-3 opportunity made for an exciting final seven and a half minutes.
The Raiders then saw rookies Cat Quirion and Liz Trautz come up with two huge blocks to keep the Bulldogs out of the net. Colgate was able to push aside any Bulldog attempt on net, despite Yale pulling the goalie, to secure the victory.
Colgate is back on home ice Friday when it welcomes nearby rival and No. 6/6 ranked Cornell at 7 p.m.
Colgate’s Murphy Burnatowski tallied a team-high 20 points and grabbed six rebounds against Bucknell Saturday afternoon. (Photo by Bob Cornell)
Burnatowski Hits 20 as Raiders Fall
Colgate Drops a 79-68 Decision to Bucknell; Three Raiders in Double-Figures
By Kat Castner
(Hamilton, NY – Feb. 1, 2014) Despite a 20-point performance from senior captain Murphy Burnatowski, the Colgate men’s basketball team couldn’t overcome a 15-point first half deficit and dropped a 79-68 decision to Bucknell on Saturdayafternoon.
The Raiders came out of the gate scoring eight quick points to take the early 8-2 lead, but Bucknell responded with a 10-0 run to take the advantage, at 12-8. From that point on the Raiders had to play catch-up. Bucknell pushed its lead to a game-high 15 points at the half but Colgate responded in the second 20 minutes cutting the deficit to seven, at 45-36 with 14 minutes to play. Unfortunately, that would be the closest the Raiders would come as the Bison secured an 11-point victory.
Colgate (8-13,2-8 PL) received a team-high performance from Burnatowski, who recorded his fourth 20-point game of the season. The Waterloo, Ont., native also pulled down six boards in the contest to go along with his 3-of-3 shooting from behind the arc. Damon Sherman-Newsome and Austin Tillotson posted 12 and 11 points, respectively, while Tillotson handed out a team-high four assists. Matt McMullen notched a team-high seven rebounds to lead the Raiders on the boards.
The Raiders went 25-of-56 from the floor for 45 percent shooting. Colgate also hit five of its 12 shots from long.
Bucknell (10-11, 5-5 PL) saw four Bison players reach double-digits with Cameron Ayers leading the way with a game-high 21 points. Ben Brackney added 11 points while Chris Hass and Steven Kasper both registered 10 points each. Brackney also pulled down a game-high eight boards in the win.
Overall the Bison shot 51 percent from the floor and 47 percent from downtown. Bucknell also converted 15 points off of Raider turnovers. Colgate, however, held the slight advantage on rebounds 33-32 and on points in the paint, at 30-22.
Colgate started the half on an 8-2 run to take the early advantage, but the Bison answered with a 10-0 run of their own to take over the lead at 12-8 with14:12 left to play in the half.
Colgate would not let up, though, cutting the Bison lead down to two, at 17-15 with 11:12 to play.
But again, Bucknell would use a run to create a 13-point margin between the teams, at 28-15.
Ayers would hit a jumper before the half to create the game’s largest margin at 15 points, sending the Bison into the break with the 39-24 advantage.
Colgate kicked off the opening five minutes of the second half on a 15-4 run to cut the Bison lead to seven, at 43-36. But a 15-7 Bucknell run over the next four minutes pushed the Bison advantage to 14-points at 57-43.
The Raiders and Bison exchanged baskets over the course of the next eight minutes and Colgate pulled to within 11-points with 1:32 left to play. Unfortunately, that would be the closest the Raiders would come as Bucknell finished the game from the free throw line, making nine of its final 11 attempts.
Colgate has a quick turnaround as it welcomes Holy Cross to Cotterell Courton Tuesday for a 9 p.m. matchup on CBS Sports Network. The game is also the Raiders’ annual LGBTQ Awareness Game.
NOTES: Rookie Andrew Bargmann notched a career-high four points in the loss while also pulling down a career-high two boards in 14 minutes of action … Colgate matched its season-low eight turnovers in the game … Prior to today’s game Sherman-Newsome had recorded at least one trey in all of the Raiders’ games this season … Burnatowski has now posted double-figures in Colgate’s last six games.