The Rocky Mountain Collegian

But, just days before the team's big weekend, the women were informed that star player junior Erica Gandomacar was academically ineligible and would not be allowed to play in the game.

Quickly, alternate senior Melanja Jones was out practicing with Tara Vorhs and Beth Supik, trying ever so hard to build the teams cohesiveness.

"We just started playing together this week," said sophomore captain Tara Vorhes. "I'm really happy with the way we played. We were working well together."

The Rams just weren't well enough. Both games were tough, close battles, but A&M won both games by four points,16-12 Saturday and 12-8 Sunday.

The women now look forward to achieving revenge as they head to College Station, Texas, for rematches this weekend.

Wildcats claw Rams

After clinching the No. 2 spot in the West, the hockey team headed to Arizona for what was to be a confidence-boosting weekend.

Unfortunately for the Rams (15-13-11), the things didn't go their way, as they dropped both games to Arizona State, 4-1 on Friday and 6-4 on Saturday.

"It was a very tough road trip," said freshman forward Mike Baker.

Friday, the Rams just weren't on their game. After keeping close through the first two periods, everything went downhill.

"We didn't create any offense," said senior center Chris Lockrem. "We out played them the first two periods, but they came out and played a different game in the third."

The game was a struggle, as the Rams were riddled with costly penalties. Three of the four Wildcat goals came on the powerplay.

"Jared (Gryskiewicz) was on top of his head," Lockrem said. "It was just costly defensive mistakes, and not just by the defense, by everyone."

The Rams' only break came in the third when junior winger Ben Peal threw the puck past the ASU goalie.

Saturday was closer for the Rams, driving back into the game every time they fell behind.

After the Cats went ahead 1-0 early in the first, CSU senior winger Gavin Hartman answered back.

"It was the best weekend I'd seen Gavin play," Lockrem said.

From there, ASU surged, scoring three.

"(4-1) was a pretty big deficit," Lockrem said.

Not too big for the Rams vision. With Lockrem and Peal on top of their games, they brought the Rams storming back, 4-3.

The Wildcats crept away again, but Peal answered back leaving the Rams down 5-4. That was all the Rams could do as ASU tacked on one more, ending the game 6-4.

"We were looking for this weekend to be a challenge," Lockrem said. "We'd hoped to come out strong ."

The men can now take a breather as they sit back on an open weekend. They will return to the ice Friday, Feb. 23 closing the regular season at home facing CU Boulder and Air Force the following night.

"We've got three practices until then," Baker said. "We're playing competition drills to get in the winning mentality."

Have any comments or suggestions regarding club sports teams and events? Hook Ron up at GBpac10673@juno.com.

Article Tools