[Sly Fox]

From the Penn State student fishwrap:

Lady Icers split with Delaware at home

By Dan Guido
Collegian Staff Writer

In a weekend of ups and downs, the No. 10 Penn State Lady Icers split a series with the University of Delaware and No. 6 University of Connecticut at the Greenberg Ice Pavillion.

On Friday night, Penn State overwhelmed Delaware en route to a 10-2 victory. On Saturday afternoon, Penn State looked overwhelmed, losing to UConn 11-3.

"I thought we did a lot of talking on the ice, and not a lot of game play," Penn State coach Michael Brinton said. "I think when we start opening mouths, we stop skating. When you play a team like this [UConn], you can't stop skating ever. The second you stop skating, they will bury you."

The Lady Icers certainly didn't need to open their mouths against Delaware, with freshman star Alicia Lepore leading the way with six goals.

The Lady Icers lit up the scoreboard in their previous meeting with the Blue Hens, scoring 17 goals against the backup goalie. Even with the starter in on Friday, the Lady Icers scored freely.

"She made some good saves, she definitely limited us early," Brinton said. "Once we turned on the jets and the afterburners, that was all she wrote."

With the blowout in mind, the Lady Icers stepped onto the ice on Saturday, ready to play an experienced and speedy UConn team.

The Lady Icers struck first when Lepore cut through the UConn defense to score just over a minute into the game.

From there, puck control went back and forth, and there were penalties aplenty. With the score 3-2 in favor of Uconn, it appeared as if the Lady Icers would go into the locker room with a first period deficit.

With seconds left in the first period, Lepore stole the puck and sent it into the net as time expired, tying the game at three.

"I think we played at our potential in the first," Brinton said. "We played as well as we could. I know we played very well defensively."

Plagued with mistakes in the second period, the Lady Icers allowed the Lady Huskies to score five goals.

After the seventh goal was scored, Penn State goalie Gena Goldbaum was replaced by Melanie Kleinmann, who had played the game against Delaware the night before. UConn scored within 20 seconds of the change.

"I thought on both defense and offense we played pretty poorly," Brinton said. "We were throwing pucks away, we weren't really passing. Our goaltending wasn't really at the level it needed to be today."

UConn went on to score three more goals in the third period, capping off the 11-3 win.

A tandem of senior forwards, Coco Lefare and Malory Tosches had a combined point total of 13 points in the game. Lefare scored four goals and had two assists. Tosches added another hat trick and four assists.

"They've been working well together for the past four years," UConn coach Brian Sarkozy said. "They've been working well ever since they started."

Penn State will be looking to turn things around when it heads into the final two games of the regular season at home against Liberty University this weekend.

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