SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. - The Saint Michael's College women's ice hockey team fell to Salve Regina University, 6-1, on Senior Day in an Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) East contest on Saturday at Cairns Arena. The Purple Knights finish the regular season 3-20-1 overall and 2-15-1 in the ECAC East, while the Seahawks are 11-9-5 and 7-7-4.

Freshman Ellia Héroux (Thunder Bay Ontario/Thunder Bay Queens) tallied the lone goal for the Purple Knights. Junior Erin Stevens (Watertown, Conn./Connecticut Polar Bears) finished with 34 saves and surpassed the 800-save mark on the season midway through the second period, extending her own school record to 807. Sophomore Meaghan Leong (Cohasset, Mass./Notre Dame Academy) finished with five saves in relief.

Freshman Taylor Shepherd (Quincy, Mass./Fontbonne Academy) tallied two markers and an assist for the Seahawks, and classmate Sarah Markey (Ashland, Mass./Hebron Academy) finished with one goal and three assists. Junior Rachel Porter (Franklin, Mass./Franklin) picked up one goal and one assist, and senior Rebecca Simmons (Averill Park, N.Y./Toronto Rattlers) finished with 16 saves in nearly 56 minutes.

The Seahawks got on the board first at 12:51 of the opening period when Shepherd put home a loose puck to make it 1-0 after a teammate's shot from the point had hit a teammate. That was the lone tally in the stanza, and the Purple Knights were only outshot 11-7.

Salve Regina extended its lead to 2-0 when Porter brought the puck into the zone and snapped a shot to the upper right corner of the net at 3:55 of the second frame. The Seahawks tallied two power-play goals in a 20-second span midway through the period and then tacked on one more with 1:30 left to make it 5-0.

Héroux got the Purple Knights on the board when she struck at 10:41 of the third period, but the Seahawks answered a little more than three minutes later to extend their lead back to five goals. Sophomores Michele Doherty (Chelmsford, Mass./East Coast Wizards) and Tracy Stevenson (Wayne, Maine/Kents Hill School) assisted Héroux's marker, her third of the winter.

Three Purple Knight seniors were honored prior to the contest: Kelly McDonald (South Burlington, Vt./South Burlington), Kiera Nelligan (Melrose, Mass./Arlington Catholic) and Casey Yelton (Arnold, Md./Washington Pride).