The women’s ice hockey team opened its season Sunday by taking on Division I Yale in New Haven. The Division III Engineers were clearly overmatched and were blanked by the Bulldogs, 8-0.
"[We] went in knowing it was going to be fairly uphill," said RPI Head Coach Bill Cahill. Yale is a team, he said, that has "lots of firepower."
That firepower was apparent in the shot differential: The Bulldogs took aim at freshman Goaltender Julie Vallarelli 46 times over the course of 60 minutes, while the Engineers could muster only 15 shots on goal, all of which were saved by Yale Goalie Nicolette Franck.
Despite the lopsided score, Cahill said that he felt the Engineers had not performed poorly—they continued to play hard in the face of a large deficit and held the Bulldogs to a single goal in the third period.
Cahill was especially pleased with the performance of Vallarelli, who made 38 saves in the contest.
"[There were] some correctable mistakes on defense where we left the goalie out to dry," he said. "[Vallarelli] did well with little support."
The Engineers will open their conference schedule on the road this weekend with matches against Salve Regina and Holy Cross.
Salve Regina is in its first year of ECAC play and they were outscored 21-0 in a pair of conference games this weekend, so the Engineers are heavy favorites. Holy Cross is a stronger team, but they also lost to Manhattanville and Sacred Heart this weekend, and Cahill expressed confidence that his team would come out with a pair of wins.
RPI’s home opener is Tuesday against a tough Plattsburgh Cardinals squad. Game time is 7 pm.
