NORTHFIELD, Vt.- The Norwich Women's Ice Hockey team closed out their home opening weekend doubleheader Saturday afternoon by completing the sweep of William Smith on the back of two late third period goals.

In the opening minute of the contest, the Cadets opened the scoring. Coming off a two-goal performance the previous night, Livia Brooks (Walpole, Mass.) rifled home a wrist shot off an Anna Lisac (Euclid, Ohio) faceoff win to give Norwich the lead 54 seconds in. They would continue to hold the territorial advantage, and score again seven and a half minutes later. After the Cadets won a board battle along the left boards, Olivia King (Old Town, Maine) fired a wrist shot that was blocked down. Libby Lane (Northville, Mich.) would corral it and send the puck to Olivia Boyer (Saint Paul, Minn.) who was camped out at the net mouth and would tap it in for the two-goal lead.

Soon after, the Herons would get some momentum going and cut the Norwich lead in half. After taking control of the puck in the neutral zone, William Smith generated chaos in front of the net and out of the scramble Kayla Ketchabaw would find the back of the net closing the gap. The two sides continued trade chances, but the one goal Cadet lead would stand after twenty minutes.

After finishing off a penalty kill that carried over, Norwich went on the offensive. However, against the flow of play, the Herons would tie the game with Ketchabaw cleaning up her own rebound. William Smith pushed the play briefly but went to the penalty box twice in short order, flipping the momentum back to the maroon and gold. The ladder of the consecutive Norwich power plays yielded six shots with Mia Iwicki preserving the tie in goal. As the frame wound down, the Herons would get another power play that would carry over into the following period.

After the Cadet penalty kill came up big once again to open the third, the two sides traded chances back and forth looking to break the tie, with Norwich being the team to break through. Once they established possession in the offensive zone, Jordan Brady (Green Bay, Wis.) would misfire on a shot, with Lane gathering the puck in behind. Lane sent it along the left wall to the point for Alex Leslie (Irishtown, New Brunswick) who gave Brady another chance. She would send a wrist shot through traffic passed Iwicki to give Norwich the lead with seven and a half remaining with three first years combining for the eventual game winning tally.

As the Herons looked to tie the game, Leocadia Clark (Stowe, Vt.) made several clutch stops preserving the lead. Around the five-minute mark, the Cadets would return to the man advantage where they would add some insurance. After a shot went wide, King circled the puck in behind, sending it to Lisac. Lisac sent the puck in front to Boyer who stuffed it by Iwicki for the power play marker with three and a half to play. The Cadets came up with one more clutch penalty kill to preserve the 4-2 win completing the weekend sweep of the Herons.

Norwich will now travel to Wesley Chapel, Fla. To take on Utica in the opener of the Sunshine Turkey Classic at 4 PM on Nov. 29.