The Forester women's hockey team defeated visiting Marian University 9-0 Friday night. Eight different players scored and Lake Forest senior goaltender Stacey Dierking made 22 saves in her first shutout of the season.
It was the fourth career shutout for Dierking, who is now tied for third in program history in that category. She improved to 2-1-1 on the year and is tied for second in team annals with 27 career victories.
The Foresters gave Dierking the early lead at 4:05 in the opening period when sophomore forward Michelle Greeneway netted her team-high 18th goal this season. She was assisted by fellow sophomore forward Logan Taylor. Holly Lesperance, another sophomore forward, scored an unassisted goal at 7:29 and junior forward Morgan Pope completed the first period scoring while on the power play at 13:25. Pope's 11th score this year was assisted by junior forward Emily Wybo and sophomore defenseman Alex Stensland.
Junior defenseman Laura Reckdenwald added to the home team's lead just 92 seconds into the second period with Pope assisting on the score. It was Reckdenwald's second goal this season. Lesperance added her second tally of the night and third this year at the 5:15 mark. Junior forward Marissa Weber assisted on what turned out to be the final goal of the period.
Stensland, who had eight assists as a freshman and leads the team with 13 this year, finally scored the first goal of her career at the 3:43 mark of the third period. The power play score was assisted by Wybo and Pope. Senior forward Maeve Connelly lit the lamp for the second time this season at 11:14 with Wybo and sophomore forward Melissa Paluch assisting. Taylor converted another power play opportunity at 13:57 for her eighth goal of the season. Greeneway was credited with the assist. The final score of the night came off the stick of freshman forward Allie Girard, whose sixth goal of 2013-14 was set up by Connelly and Greeneway.
Lake Forest was 3-for-4 on the power play and out-shot the visitors 35-22 on the night.
The Foresters raised their overall record on the season to 8-4-3 and improved to 6-3-2 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play. The Sabres fell to 4-9-1 overall and 3-5-0 in the league. The same two teams will face off again Saturday afternoon at 2:00.