The Engineers were once again paced by Julie Durham, who scored her second hat trick in as many weeks. Durham opened the game’s scoring just nine seconds into the contest—Deanna Dougherty won the draw for the Engineers and pushed the puck up to Katie Woodward, who fed Durham for the score.

RPI brought 12 more shots during the period, but could not crack Union’s Victoria Elkins again before the first intermission.

The Dutchwomen, meanwhile, got off only five shots in the first frame, but took advantage of a Paula Durham roughing penalty to get on the board as Kathy Dolezal beat RPI’s Julie Vallarelli for the power play goal.

RPI turned things up on both ends of the ice after the first intermission, scoring four times in the second period while positively boring Vallarelli—she needed to make only two saves in the period.

Dougherty struck first, on assists by Julie Durham and Andrea Poley, who followed that goal up with the game winner at the 8:56 mark. Julie Durham and Kate Adams added insurance goals later in the period, with Dougherty notching assists on both scores.

The Engineers posted another four-spot in the third period, and while Union got one more goal from Jennifer Fleming at 8:25 of that frame, by that point Rensselaer had built up an insurmountable five-goal lead, and they easily coasted to a win.

Dougherty ended the night with five points (two goals, three assists), and the three co-captains—Adams, Poley, and Julie Durham—each contributed four points to the victory. Union managed only ten shots in the entire game.

The Engineers next face Manhattanville in the ECAC-East semifinals on Saturday at 12:30 pm. The Valiants are the fifth-ranked team in the nation and have lost only one game all year, to Elmira. As the top team in the conference, they drew a bye last week and will host the conference tournament.