NEW LONDON, Conn. - The Connecticut College women's ice hockey team battled hard but came up short, falling to visiting Williams College 2-1 on Saturday from Dayton Arena. With the loss, Conn falls to 2-3-1 overall and 1-3-0 in conference play, while Williams improves to 3-1-0 overall and 3-1-0 in NESCAC play..

Williams (3-1-0, 3-1-0) fired off the first shot of the contest, but Devon Galizio (Wayland, Mass.) turned away the effort. Conn (2-3-1, 1-3-0) answered with their first shot by Sydney Cresta (Swampscott, Mass.), but Erin Pye kept it out. Midway through the period, the Ephs opened the scoring, when Claire Murphy corralled a loose puck in the neutral zone, and skated in, firing a shot past Galizio at 10:10 to give Williams the 1-0 lead. 

The Camels responded with some shots, and found the equalizer with just under two minutes to play in the period. Kiley Smith (Marion, Mass.) fed a pass across the point to Kate Hagness (Madison, Conn.), who fired a slap pass to the far post that Clare Sammons (Naperville, Ill.) tipped home to tie the game at one, at 18:08. Neither side found the back of the net in the remaining time, as the teams headed to the first intermission square at one.

Williams came out strong to start the second period, putting shots on Galizio, but were unable to break through. With just over five minutes gone, however, the Ephs jumped in front on a power play goal from Quinn Dawson. Conn played strong for the final 15 minutes of the period, but could not tie the game, as the Camels trailed 2-1 heading to the third.

Conn and Williams traded chances early in the final frame, but slowly the Camels started to up their pressure looking for the tying goal. Conn continued to fire pucks at Pye, but the Williams goalie stayed strong keeping Conn at bay. With a minute and a half remaining, Galizio headed to the bench for the extra attacker, and the Camels threw everything on goal, but could not find the tying goal, falling 2-1.

Williams held a slim edge on shots, 26-24, while winning 33 of 58 face-offs.

Galizio got the start in goal, making 24 saves. Sammons tallied the lone Conn goal, while Hagness and Smith both added an assist. Charlotte Harris (Ystrad Mynach, Wales) won eight of 13, going 0-1 on the power play and 1-2 on the penalty kill.

Pye picked up the win in goal, stopping 23 shots. Dawson and Murphy both tallied one goal, while two others picked up one assist each. Williams won 33 face-offs, while going 1-2 on the power play and 1-1 on the penalty kill.

Conn wraps up their home ice winter fall semester slate on Tuesday night, as the Camels host UMass Boston at 7:00 p.m. in Dayton Arena.