Again, the freshman and the defense stepped it up for the Albert Lea High School girls’ hockey team.

This time they fell a little short.

With ninth-grader Jenny Birkhofer starting in place of injured senior Erin Schlarbaum at goalie, the Tigers played well but lost 2-1 to Farmington in a nonconference game at the City Arena Saturday.

&uot;Jenny went into a game against very strong competition and came up with some very strong saves,&uot; said ALHS coach Jason Fornwald. &uot;The girls played two good back-to-back games. I was real proud of our effort. Hopefully, we can carry it over to Tuesday against Austin.&uot;

The Tigers, who won 6-4 at Mankato East Friday to improve to 8-1-1 in the Big Nine, fell to 13-3-1 overall. Schlarbaum left Friday’s game late in the second period and, according to Fornwald, her injury was to be evaluated sometime during the weekend.

Laura Hillman scored for the Tigers against Farmington, assisted by Tessa Christensen and Amy Leach.

Farmington outshot Albert Lea 25-22.

The Tigers meet Austin at 7:30 Tuesday at the City Arena.