ITHACA, N.Y. – Senior
Gillis Frechette scored twice and sophomore goaltender
Deanna Fraser stopped 17 shots to post her first collegiate shutout, aiding the No. 10-ranked Cornell women's hockey team to a 3-0 victory over Mercyhurst at Lynah Rink on Friday night.
Frechette's goals were bookended by a
Kaitlin Jockims second-period tally, as Cornell opened its season with a win for the fifth time in the last six seasons.
"We were a bit on our heels the first 10 minutes of the game, maybe it was some nerves, but after that we settled in pretty good," said
Doug Derraugh '91, the Everett Family Head Coach of Women's Hockey. "We had a good last 5-7 minutes of the first and that seemed to carry over into the second and third. There's a lot of good things for our first game. As always, there's also a number of things that we definitely need to get better at."
Fraser made seven of her 17 saves in the first period.
"She was really solid for us," Derraugh said. "She was getting challenged by the shooters and her body control was really good. It didn't seem like she was getting herself out of position."
Late in the first period, junior
Izzy Daniel and senior
Paige Kenyon created a mismatch enabling Kenyon to send a pass to Frechette, one-timing her first goal of the night from the low slot.
Jockims increased the Big Red's just over halfway through the second period as a no-look pass by freshman
Georgia Schiff found the sophomore at the bottom of right faceoff circle where she one-timed her shot past Mercyhurst's goaltender Eva Nystrøm.
A shot from the right point by sophomore
Rory Guilday was redirected into the net from the low slot by Frechette, giving Cornell an insurance late in the second period.
Nystrøm made 29 saves on the night for Mercyhurst (5-4-0), with 14 of them coming in the opening frame.
Game Notes
• Friday was the 35th all-time meeting between Cornell and Mercyhurst. With the victory, the Big Red is now 13-17-5 against the Lakers and have won four of the last five games in the series.
• With Fraser's shutout, it was Cornell's first season-opening shutout since blanking No. 8 Robert Morris on Oct. 25, 2019. It was the Big Red's first shutout since
Lindsay Browning stopped 20 shots in a victory over St. Lawrence on Feb. 1, 2022.
• Frechette recorded her eighth multi-goal game of her career and her first since Feb. 1, 2022, vs. St. Lawrence.
Looking Ahead
Cornell and Mercyhurst will return to Lynah Rink at 3 p.m. Saturday for the final game of the two-game series. Game action will be broadcast on ESPN+.
"Mercyhurst will be looking to turn the tables on us tomorrow and they'll be coming hard," Derraugh said. "We need to be ready for that and prepared for that and carry the momentum that we had at the end of this game."
