Rensselaer’s women’s hockey team completed this week’s games with one tie and two conference game losses. In the conference standings, the Rensselaer Engineers fell from fifth place to sixth place in the ECAC-East conference with a record of 7-5-0 and 10-8-1 overall. Wednesday’s match-up versus Williams ended in a 4-4 tie in overtime play, while Saturday’s game against RIT resulted in a 2-1 loss and Sunday’s game at Union a 1-0 loss.
In a home game against Williams, the Engineers played a solid game with aggressive offensive plays and a powerful defense. RPI remained consistent throughout the game with goals scored each period, while only allowing four goals against them among forty attempted shots.
In the first period, senior Jessica Malec put the Engineers on the scoreboard with a shot to the goal with assists by Sara Riel and Bridget Rice. At 1:41 into the second period, with an assist by Andrea Poley, Paula Durham slammed the puck by Williams’ Anna McIntosh for RPI’s second goal of the game.
Williams could not sneak the puck past RPI’s Julie Vallarelli until the second period, when they scored two goals before Christin Sauca shot RPI’s third goal of the game. In the third period, Kate Adams scored the fourth goal for the Engineers with the help of Andrea Poley and Sara Riel. By the end of the third period, the score was tied at four goals each, which led to the first overtime period this season. After five minutes of overtime play, neither team added to the score leaving the final score a 4-4 tie.
At RIT on Saturday, the Engineers put up a strong defensive fight during the first two periods. With less than two minutes into period one, Christin Sauca fired the puck past RIT’s Elaine Vonderembse to put Rensselaer in the lead, with an assist provided by Meredith Langille. On defense, Julie Vallarelli forcefully guarded the goal with 34 total saves, only allowing two goals to pass in the third period. However, the Engineers could not get into scoring position to surpass their opponents, leaving the final score a 2-1 loss for RPI.
In another conference match-up on Sunday, Union took revenge against Rensselaer who defeated them 3-0 back in December. This time around, the Engineers fell short by one goal to Union with a final score of 1-0. The score remained tied at 0-0 until the third period when Union slipped the puck by Vallarelli at the goal. After the upset by Union, RPI fell one spot to sixth place in their conference with Union stealing the fifth place spot.
The sixth-place Engineers have a chance to move up in the conference standings this weekend with a pair of home games. On Friday, they tackle No. 7 Holy Cross, who has a 4-9-0 conference record. Saturday’s game is against the 3-10-0 Salve Regina squad, who currently hold eighth place in the ECAC-East.
