NORTHFIELD, Vt. –  A shorthanded Norwich University women's ice hockey team fell 7-2 to No. 4-ranked Elmira College on Saturday afternoon, snapping the Cadets' record 57-game New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) unbeaten streak. 

Norwich (8-4-0, 7-1-0) lost in league competition for the first time since Feb. 4, 2017 in its first NEHC contest against perennial powerhouse Elmira. 

Despite being three skaters short of the allotted 19 due to illness, Norwich put a valiant effort to rally from a 2-0 first-period deficit to tie it at 2-2 after 40 minutes. 

However, the third period was all Elmira as the Soaring Eagles poured five goals into the net, while outshooting the tired Cadets 18-6 in the final frame. 

Elmira's Claire Meeder scored a hat trick, while Holley Riva added two more goals to lead the Soaring Eagles offense. 

Elmira (11-2-1, 9-0-0 NEHC) scored two goals late in the first period with Riva scoring twice just 1:22 a part to give the Soaring Eagles the edge heading into the first intermission. 

Norwich rebounded though in the middle stanza, tallying twice just 1:14 apart on goals from Mikah Baptiste (Ottawa, Ontario) and Abby Chauvin (Morrisville, Vt.). 

Baptiste scored her team-leading ninth goal of the season, wristing a shot past Leonie-Louise Kuehberger after corralling a pass from Molly Flanagan (Lutz, Fla.) in the neutral zone and then skating into the zone and firing a shot past the blocker of Keuhberger at the 5:06 mark. 

Just over a minute later Chauvin scored her first collegiate goal with a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle that deflected off an Elmira player and into the back of the net to tie the game up at 2-2 at the 6:20 mark. 

Norwich was able to make it to the second intermission still tied at 2-2 until Elmira turned on the afterburners in the third period to skate to the victory. 

Senior goalie Alexa Berg (West Fargo, N.D.) made 33 saves in net for the Cadets to fall to 4-4 on the season. 

Norwich will look to get back on track on Jan. 14 and 15 when it hosts Johnson & Wales and UMass Boston at 6 p.m. and 3 p.m. respectively in NEHC contests.