In their first home game ever, the Geneseo Women's Ice Hockey Club, after two scoreless periods, shut out William Smith College 2-0 in the game's final four minutes.
Over 300 fans attended an exciting display on Nov. 8, in which both teams struggled to find a sense of rhythm.
"I thought it was a great game," said senior fan Emily Grisante. "The crowd was really into it and I thought they played amazingly."
At the 3:45 mark in the third period, senior winger Nicole Shattuck pushed the puck up the ice on a power play and made a perfect drop pass as freshman Rachel Scott flicked the puck into the upper left hand corner of the goal.
"That was great," said senior defenseman and club president Maureen Mancuso. "You should've heard the crowd when Rachel made that shot."
Mancuso later took a pass from senior Jess Springett and passed to freshman Megan Hurley, who scored the final goal of the game at the 1:28 mark.
Geneseo finished the game with 27 shots on goal to William Smith's 26. Geneseo was charged with one penalty for body contact. William Smith was penalized twice, once for tripping and once for body contact; the latter led to the power play goal.
Shattuck commented on the significance of winning at home.
"This was a big confidence booster for our team," she said. "I feel as we're finally starting to come together as a team and hopefully that will lead to more wins."
"Our younger girls have really stepped up," said Mancuso. "Our goalie Melissa Gavin is a freshman and she's never played hockey before but she volunteered to be goalie and you can see her confidence growing."
Jennifer Delcourt and Melissa Pitarresi, both present at the game, founded the club in 2005.
"It was really great having them there because without them this game wouldn't have happened," said Mancuso. "We had great fan support, especially the pep band and the men's hockey team." The team is coached by an all-volunteer staff and consists of 24 players of all experience levels.
"We practice about once a week," said Mancuso. "It's tough to get ice time but we try and to make it work. Plus we all go to the free skate-and-shoot." The club's next game is at the University of Rochester on Nov. 15.