Pine Valley, NY – The Elmira College Women's Ice Hockey team scored two goals and held off a late rally as they downed SUNY Plattsburgh, 2-1, Sunday afternoon at the Murray Athletic Center. The win improves the Soaring Eagles to 16-2-1 overall and 11-1-0 in ECAC West play, while the loss drops the Cardinals to 13-4-2 overall and 11-1-2 in conference competition.

The game started out slowly offensively as neither team had many scoring opportunities the first period and a half. Plattsburgh held a 12-9 shots on goal advantage in the opening period. In the second stanza the Purple and Gold got on the board on an Ashley Ryan '15 (North Chili, NY -- Rochester Edge) marker. Lisa Marshall '14 (Powhatan, VA -- Wayne State University) made the save in net for Elmira, feeding Katy Walker '12 (Edmonds, WA -- Colorado Select). Walker played the puck to Ryan who took it up the ice and beat Cardinal goaltender Sydney Aveson top shelf on the glove side. EC held a slight 14-11 shots advantage in the period and took a 1-0 lead into the second intermission.

Elmira got a huge insurance goal at the 7:34 mark of the third period on Ryan's second score of the day, this time on the power play. Tanis Lamoureux '14 (Canton, MI -- Victory Honda) fed Haley Welch '15 (East Amherst, NY -- Nichols School) at the point, who fired a one-timer. Aveson made the initial save, but Ryan stood at the left post and fired the rebound in the back of the net for a 2-0 EC lead. An Elmira penalty gave Plattsburgh a power-play opportunity, and the Cardinals responded less than a minute later when Jenny Kistner scored off the feed from Teal Gove and Shannon Stewart.

The Soaring Eagles held off the Cardinals late as the defense shut down Plattsburgh's attack. Marshall finished with 31 saves in net for Elmira, while Aveson stopped 33 shots for Plattsburgh.

The Elmira College Women's Ice Hockey team returns to action Friday when they host Buffalo State at the Murray Athletic Center at 7:00 p.m.