Byron Center, Mich. — The Aquinas women's hockey team suffered a pair of defeats this weekend against local rival Grand Valley State. The Saints dropped the first game on the road Friday (Oct. 27) by a final score of 2-0 before letting things get away from them in an 8-2 loss Saturday night (Oct. 28) at the Southside Ice Arena.

Aquinas dropped to 1-3 overall while GVSU improved to 3-2 overall with the two wins.

Game 1 (Friday, Oct. 27): Grand Valley State 2, Aquinas 0

All the goals happened in the last 10 minutes of the first period for GVSU. Kayli Sassak scored with 9:58 left in the period and Abbey McCallion added another with 2:18 left on the clock.  

Marlee Sprott and Melanie Scram picked up the assists.

The last 40 minutes went scoreless, despite seven out of the nine minor penalties coming in the last two periods.

AQ goaltender Kadynce Romijn made a season-high 40 saves in the defeat. GVSU netminder Liv Bernard only needed 22 saves to get the shutout win, as the Lakers outshot the Saints 42-22 in the affair.

Game 2 (Saturday, Oct. 28): Grand Valley State 8, Aquinas 2

The rematch the following evening on AQ's home ice didn't go much better. While the Saints did manage to score twice, the Lakers buried eight goals for a rather convincing win.

GVSU once again scored the first two goals, but this time Aquinas had an answer as Alyssa Exline scored her first goal of the season. Lauryn Wood was credited with the assist for her first point this year.

Less than three minutes after Exline's tally, Sprott got the goal back for the Lakers to give GVSU a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Grand Valley State started the second period hot with two goals 17 seconds apart, both coming from Scram.

Julia DeHondt got on the score sheet with AQ's final goal of the night with 12:56 left in the second period. Kylie Rancilio picked up the helper. Aquinas now trailed 5-2.

Sassak assisted two more GVSU goals in the second period by Sprott and Marirose LeFevre, before Sassak scored the final goal of the game with 11:20 remaining in the third period.

Sassak led all players with four points in the contests (two goals, two assists). Sprott collected three points (two goals, one assist).

Aquinas was outshot 51-35, helping Romijn re-set her season-high with 43 saves in the defeat. Emily Carson picked up the win between the pipes for GVSU.

Next up, Aquinas is back in action next weekend with a home-and-away series against Michigan State. The Saints will play at home first at 7:40 p.m. Friday (Nov. 3) before going on the road for a 12:30 p.m. puck drop Sunday (Nov. 5) in East Lansing, Mich.