Courtesy Norwich Sports Inforomation

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — The Norwich University women’s hockey team opened the 2019-20 regular season with a 3-1 loss to defending national champion Plattsburgh State on Wednesday night in the Ronald B. Stafford Ice Arena.

Freshman forward Julia Masotta (Tewksbury, Mass.) scored her first collegiate goal, but it wasn’t enough as Norwich (0-1-0) dropped its third straight game to the Cardinals and fell to 1-14-2 in its last 17 games vs. Plattsburgh State.

Masotta scored at the 9:31 mark of the second period to briefly tie the game at 1-1 off assists from Maddie Moell (Clarence Center, N.Y.) and Samantha Benoit (Bow, N.H.).

Benoit made a great indirect pass off the side boards to spring Moell on a 2-on-1 rush out of the zone. Moell dragged the puck around a Plattsburgh defender and then shoveled the puck towards the net. Ashley Davis made an initial save but Masotta was crashing on the weak side to slam the rebound home inside the right post for the Cadets’ first goal of the year.

Norwich scored just 56 seconds after Annie Katonka gave Plattsburgh a 1-0 lead at the 8:35 mark of the second period. The tie score lasted just 1:04 as Sarah Wolf scored an unassisted goal at the 10:35 mark of the second period. Kaitlin Drew-Mead capped the scoring, beating NU sophomore goalie Alexa Berg (Fargo, N.D.) to the left post off assists from Erin McArdle and Wolf.

Berg made 29 saves for Norwich, while Davis stopped 26 shots for Plattsburgh.

Plattsburgh State (3-0-0, 2-0-0 NEWHL) raised its seventh national championship banner prior to the game and its fifth in the last six years.

Norwich will travel to UMass Boston on Friday, November 8th for a 4 p.m. faceoff to open up New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) action.