The Engineers pretty much dominated Yale from start to finish tonight. Other than a few isolated instances, they controlled the play to defeat a young Yale team (it appeared the Bulldogs' best line this evening was 3 freshmen) 4-1 while outshooting their hosts by a ratio of 2:1. Jordan Smelker recorded a hat trick and Sydney O'Keefe also added a goal. Sonja van der Bliek was solid and should have recorded a shutout, but lost it in the third period when a backhand from near the blue line was accidentally tipped by Andie Le Donne over her shoulder.
My concern with this team was whether they could replace last year's strong senior class. They've got a way to go, but the freshmen looked good. Smelker scored goals three different ways - a wrist shot from the right wing circle to the far top corner; crashing the net to put home a rebound that trickled across the goal mouth; and on a clean break from the blue line in which she deked the goaltender down and pulled the puck to her backhand to tuck it into the open side. Toni Sanders didn't show up on the score sheet but she moves well out there and may mature into a goal scorer as her career evolves. Madison Marzario, who is stepping into Laura Gersten's slot on the blue line, looked solid.
Perhaps best of all, a number of the upper classmen seemed to have stepped up their games. Yale is hardly the biggest test in the league, but they were playing an emotional game in tribute to Mandi Schwartz in front of a good-sized crowd, so it was a good early season challenge and the women came through with flying colors.