Box Score HAMDEN, Conn. – Gianna Meloni made 22 saves but the Yale Women's Hockey Team fell 3-1 to Quinnipiac in the championship game of the 2019 Nutmeg Classic at Frank Perrotti Jr. Arena.
 
Meloni's teammates outshot the Bobcats 35-25 but tournament MVP, Abbie Ives, prevented a Bulldog road win with 34 saves.
 
Grace Lee was the first to light the lamp on an unassisted effort midway through the opening frame. The first-year center from Boulder, Colo., pulled the puck out of the corner, skated around the right circle and snapped off a rising wrister that went over Ives' left shoulder. Kirsten Nergaard and Emma Seitz, whose one-timer on the edge of the crease was saved with under two minutes left in regulation, picked up assists.
 
Meloni, a junior, kept the Bobcats off the board in the first period, and then made a bunch of saves in one sequence early in the second before the home team broke through with a pair of scores.
 
The Bulldogs, who have won four Nutmeg titles since the tournament began in 2004, pulled Meloni with a little under two minutes left but gave up an empty-netter with 63 seconds to go.
 
Yale, which placed Saroya Tinker and Charlotte Welch on the all-tournament team, is back in action next Friday night to host Harvard in the White Out For Mandi.