ADRIAN, Mich. -- The No. 4 Adrian College women's NCAA Hockey team hosted No. 1 ranked and defending national champion, Wisconsin-River Falls in the opening game of a home series on Saturday night at the Arrington Ice Arena. The Bulldogs battled the Falcons hard, but fell short in the contest, losing 4-2.

The Bulldogs and Falcons met for a rematch of the 2024 frozen four semifinal game, where the Bulldogs fell to Falcons in that one too, before UWRF went on to capture the national crown.

Bulldog fans showed out to this one for a White Out theme, creating a thrilling and national tournament-esque environment for their team to feed off of. An exciting start to the game saw each team generate chances, but it was River Falls who opened the scoring 7 minutes in. Zoe Lohrei answered for Adrian to tie the game with just over three minutes to go off a beautiful rush play, though the Falcons responded fast with two quick ones late to go up 3-1 after one frame.

Captain Maya Roy capitalized on the power-play for Adrian in period two, the lone goal of the frame to bring the score to 3-2 going into the final period of play. A close and exciting third period ultimately witnessed a Falcons fourth goal to increase the lead, which was to no avail for the Bulldogs as they couldn't close the gap and fell to the No. 1 team in the country by a 4-2 margin.

Adrian goaltender, Annie Gilbert, made 19 saves in the loss. Riley Johnson and Kathryn Truban each notted helpers in the game for Adrian.

The two teams will be back in action tomorrow at 12:00 PM at the AIA.