After a historic weekend of sweeping two Ancient Eight rivals, the women’s hockey team prepares to hit the road this weekend to face two non-Ivy teams. Friday afternoon the Red (2-2, 2-0) will meet at Union’s Messa Rink at 3 p.m. to take on the Dutchwomen (2-6), followed by a 2:30 p.m. match the following day at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (2-5-3).

Coming off of its last two matches, the Red is definitely in high spirits.

Riding the glory: Women’s Ice Hockey is coming off two historic Ivy League wins as it faces Union and RPI.“It was unbelievable to beat both Dartmouth and Harvard,” said senior forward Melanie Jue. “We were able to prove ourselves as a force to be reckoned with.”

However, the team is not letting down its guard or acting too confidently.

“We do realize that we still have a lot to work on and recognize that it’s only the beginning of the season,” Jue added.

In preparation for the matches this weekend, the girls have continued their routine workouts everyday, with a similar focus they have had during all regular practices.

“We’re going to keep things simple and play our own game,” Jue said.

As always, the Red will not try to not let anybody else dictate play. Instead, the girls will try to have the opposing teams skate to the Red’s terms.

They are also going to attempt to better their transitions at net and their movement at the blue line, which sophomore forward Chelsea Karpenko believes still need a little work.

The Red’s strengths seem to exist in the team’s speed and ability to block shots. But more importantly, its determination to do the hard things that most teams do not do is key to the Red’s success, as the girls are seen playing the most physical games.

“We put ourselves out there and are crashing the net, skating fiercely and forechecking a lot,” Jue said.

The movement of the game is also expected to be smoother than before, now that the team has spent some time together and played some real games, therefore having more familiarity with one another.

“Our team has definitely come together and gelled over, forming a clique,” Jue said.

As the Red takes on Union, the Dutchwomen will be recuperating from two losses they faced this past weekend at Quinnipiac and Princeton. However, the Dutchwomen have exhibited that they do well with the home ice advantage, having done nothing but upset the other teams when playing at Messa Rink.

“Union definitely has a lot of talent and shouldn’t be underestimated,” Jue said.

The Red lost to the Engineers back in February. The Red intends to reverse those statistics after Saturday’s game, against RPI and its seven-game losing streak. The Engineers have strength in that they’re known to be a hard-working team.

“Both teams always put up a good fight,” Karpenko noted.

The Red will be aim to justify its new No. 10 ranking as it takes on these two teams.

“We’re really pumped and it creates a great atmosphere,” Karpenko said. “We’re excited to play.”