SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. – The Saint Michael's College women's ice hockey team fell to College of the Holy Cross, 3-1, in a New England Hockey Conference contest on Saturday at Cairns Arena. With the loss, the Purple Knights fall to 0-4 overall and 0-2 in the NEHC. With the win, the Crusaders improve to 4-0 and 2-0.

Senior Sarah Bagley (Concord, Mass./Concord-Carlisle) scored the lone goal for the Purple Knights while junior Jillian Witwicki (Danvers, Mass/Pingree School) went 10-for-17 at the faceoff dot. Senior Tina Frasca (Norwood, Mass./Tabor Academy) made 34 saves. It was her 24th career 30-save performance.

For the Crusaders, seniors Erin Hall and Elizabeth Scala each had one goal and one assist, while sophomore Tori Messina registered a goal, and first-year Hannah Gillis recorded two assists. Junior Tessie Salatas made 19 saves in the win.

Late in the first period, first-year Victoria Young received a drop pass in the high slot and fired a shot that Frasca denied with a blocker save, and the rebound was gathered by first-year Marissa Higgins but Frasca stuffed her scoring opportunity to keep the game scoreless with 42 seconds remaining. The teams entered the first intermission knotted at zero.

Early in the second period, sophomore Sam Girard was set up on the right post by a teammate with a cross-crease pass, but her attempt to score was stopped by Frasca as she slid pipe-to-pipe to keep the puck out with a left pad save. With a little less than 16 minutes remaining, Witwicki was set up in the high slot during a 3-on-2 rush with a drop pass from junior Amanda Donahoe (Wakefield, Mass./Saint Mary's), but her attempt on goal was turned away by Salatas with a pad save. Just over a minute later, Messina fired a shot from the top of the right circle that beat Frasca over the blocker side before hitting the top left corner of the net giving the Crusaders a 1-0 lead with 14:23 remaining. With less than a minute to play in the period, Hall beat two Purple Knight defenders at the top of the circle and got an open look on the doorstep but her shot was kept out by Frasca. Seconds later, Bagley got open in front of the Crusader goal but her doorstep opportunity was denied by Salatas.

Twenty seconds into the third period, Hall sent a fluttering puck toward goal from her offensive blue line and the puck snuck under Frasca's left pad making the score 2-0. Just 17 seconds later, Bagley found the puck at the top of the left circle and fired a shot that got through a crowd in front and beat Salatas to make the score 2-1 with 19:23 remaining. With 15:57 remaining, Scala released a shot from the top of the left circle that beat Frasca over the glove side and hit the top right part of the net to make the score 4-1. With 14:30 remaining, first-year Jordan Monbouquette (Wayland, Mass./Lawrence Academy) let go of a shot that got through a screening defender before Salatas could deny it with a pad save. With 3:30 remaining, Girard beat multiple Purple Knight defenders before firing a shot on the doorstep that was kept out by Frasca.

Up next for the Purple Knights is road contest against NEHC opponent Franklin Pierce University on Friday at 7 p.m.