The Harvard women’s hockey team started out the weekend by making history.

Unfortunately for the Crimson, it wasn’t the kind its skaters will want to remember, as Harvard dropped a 3-2 decision to Yale at Ingalls Rink on Friday—the team’s first loss to the Bulldogs since Nov. 18, 1984, when Harvard went down by the same tally.

The Crimson (3-1-1, 3-1-0 ECACHL) fell to Yale (2-4-0, 1-3-0) in a tight game that sparked Harvard to come out Saturday and give one of its best efforts of the young season to defeat Princeton 3-0 at Hobey Baker Rink.

The team emphasized it wouldn’t let one loss to Yale spoil the entire weekend.

“It’s a marathon, not a sprint,” said tri-captain Kat Sweet.

Although every game matters in terms of the Ivy title, losing a game early on in the season can bring with it positive effects of firing up a team. Harvard did just this against Princeton (3-2-1, 2-2-0).

“We could have gotten really dejected and lost faith in ourselves and rolled over and died,” said tri-captain Nicole Corriero. “But we showed a lot of resiliency and heart. It was so awesome to see how we responded to adversity.”

HARVARD 3, PRINCETON 0

On Saturday night, the hockey team wiped the rink clean with longtime rival Princeton. Harvard dominated the ice the entire game, spending most of its time on offense with 24 shots against Tiger goalie Roxanne Gaudiel.

Sweet opened the scoring early on with a goal at 8:18 in the first period with the Crimson enjoying its first power play of the game. Corriero assisted with a great play by coming up the left wing and into the zone. She managed to take most of the Princeton defensive players with her and passed to the center where Sweet was open in front of the net.

“It was a garbage goal, but it got the job done,” Sweet said.

Corriero added another assist at the 4:31 mark of the third period. After bringing the puck up with junior forward Jennifer Raimondi, Corriero once again passed the puck to the center where a waiting Raimondi scored to put Harvard up 2-0.

Corriero iced the victory, scoring the last goal of the game at 13:46 in the third period. Sophomore defender Caitlin Cahow moved the puck out of the Crimson defensive zone by passing it up the ice to freshman defender Jessica Mackenzie. Mackenzie was then able to feed Corriero the puck. She then scored Harvard’s third and final goal of the night.

“I put a lot more pressure on myself to produce more [during Saturday’s game],” said Corriero. “[We all] dug a little deeper to make sure we came out with a decisive win.”

YALE 3, HARVARD 2

While the Crimson was able to get 50 shots off against Bulldog goalie Sarah Love, 48 of them were turned away. Love has a history of keeping her team alive against Harvard—last year she held the Crimson scoreless until Corriero managed to break through in the last minute of play.

“The goalie absolutely stood on her head,” Sweet said.

The Bulldogs managed to fire 31 shots against Harvard sophomore goalie Emily Vitt. It was Vitt’s first collegiate loss.

The winning goal against Vitt came at 9:16 in the third period with Yale forward Erin Duggan scoring during a Bulldog power play. Duggan was assisted by Sheila Zingler, who after getting the rebound, managed to put the puck on the goal line for Duggan to tap in.

The Bulldogs took the lead in the first period, as well, with Nicole Symington scoring just 3:16 into the game by putting the puck right through Vitt’s pads. Yale went on to increase its lead to 2-0 over the Crimson when at 4:13 in the second period, Bulldog Kelsey Johnson slipped an apparently harmless shot past Vitt.

But Harvard seemed to rally later on in the game. Sophomore defender Caitlin Cahow scored the first goal for the Crimson during a power play at 10:07 in the second frame. Jennifer Skinner would pick up the assist after passing the puck across to Cahow at the point and allowing Cahow to put her shot just inside the left post. Although Harvard would receive eight power plays over the course of the game, Cahow’s goal would remain the only score with Yale a man down.

With the score at 3-1 the Crimson made a last-chance effort midway through the third period, when Harvard junior forward Carrie Schroyer scored her first goal of the season.

Schroyer’s goal was almost not counted as the referee blew the whistle after her shot. The goalie had slid back into the net with the puck underneath her, but luckily for Harvard, the linesman met with the referee and the result was that they allowed the goal.

The Crimson got one last chance to bring the game to a tie when they got a 5-on-3 power play at 6:12 in the third period, but Love kept the puck out of her net and dashed the Crimson’s hopes for a win.

“We could have and should have won [this game],” Corriero said. “But sometimes in [this] type of game stuff just doesn’t go your way.”