The women’s basketball team pulled four wins out of the early winter season, recording only one loss.

Their first game, played on December 5 found the Red Hawks with a decent lead over the Hartwick Hawks. A strong second half cemented the 38-23 lead RPI had over Hartwick, leaving the Red Hawks with a 81-55 win.

The Red Hawks’ second game was not nearly as decisive. The Mount St. Mary Blue Knights played a tight game against the Red Hawks, walking away with a three point lead over RPI. The final score for the game was 51-54.

That was to be the only defeat the Red Hawks suffered. When play resumed on January 4, the Red Hawks were playing against an undefeated Brandeis team. The Red Hawks started off slow and just when things looked like they could only get worse, the Red Hawks began to fight back The sophmore guard Kaitlyn Saunders helped to pull the Red Hawks back in the game. She scored a team high of 21 points, four rebounds and two steals to help lead the Red Hawks to victory, within a thirty minute time period. The team came back from a 20 point deficit in the first half to beat out the Brandeis Judges, 67-62.

RPI recorded another win on January 5 in the Championship Game of the WPI Invitational. In the end, the Red Hawks beat out the WPI Engineers, 80-54.

Kaitlyn Saunders saw her first action of the season and helped the Red Hawks to victory by averaging 21.5 points for both games in the tournament. She earned the most valuable player award because of this.

RPI closed out their play with a game against the Swarthmore Garnet Tide. The first half closed with the Red Hawks up by one. The second half was marked with much more aggressive play as the Red Hawks pulled ahead, ending the game 72-57.

The early winter games find the Red Hawks at 6-3. The women’s basketball team will play again on Friday at 8 pm against Union.