ASHLAND, Wis. – The St. Olaf College women's hockey team picked up its third-straight victory to begin the season with a 5-1 non-conference victory in the opening game of its series against Northland College on Friday night at Bay Area Civic Center.

After St. Olaf (3-0-0) led 2-0 after two periods, Northland (1-2-0) made it a one-goal game early in the third, but the Oles answered by scoring the final three goals of the game to run away with the win late on. St. Olaf's 3-0-0 start is its second in the last three seasons.

First year Molly Terebayza scored twice in the victory, while line and classmate Solvei Berg-Messerole added a goal and two assists. Sophomore Hannah Fritz – the reigning Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Defensive Player of the Week – stopped 23 of the 24 shots she faced to collect the win.

St. Olaf was outshot by a 9-5 margin in shots on goal in the opening period but carried a 2-0 lead into the first intermission behind goals from Terebayza and junior Grace Lankas. Terebayza opened the scoring with her first goal of the season at the 9:51 mark off an assist from Berg-Messerole before Lankas fired home a wrist shot just 1:18 later for her first of the season. Juniors Hannah Metric and Sophire McBane earned assists on Lankas' tally for their first points of the young season.

The score remained 2-0 until Kate Holtz got Northland's lone goal of the game at the 6:18 mark of the third period to cut St. Olaf's lead in half. The Oles reestablished their two-goal lead a little more than three minutes later on Berg-Messerole's first goal of the season, with first year Molly Halvorson registering the first point of her collegiate career on the goal.

Terebayza added her second goal of the night unassisted at the 13:08 mark of the third to post her third-career game with at least two goals. Junior Iona Welsch followed with an unassisted goal shorthanded with under two minutes remaining for the third shorthanded goal of her career.

Northland outshot St. Olaf by a 24-21 count in shots on goal but could only get the puck past Fritz once. Zoe Laming made 11 of her 16 saves in the second period for the hosts.

The two teams close out their series on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 2 p.m. at Bay Area Civic Center.