The Saints came out strong in Friday’s contest, as they scored twice in the first minute of play. The Red Hawks, who initially seemed flat and timid in comparison to the Saints, then turned the tables as they scored 2 in a row in the course of a minute to even the score. These 2 initial scores, the first by Attacker Mary Roy and the second by attacker and Co-Captain Dena Mielke, were huge and restored the confidence of the RPI players.

The rest of the contest would follow a similar pattern: One team would jump out on top, and then the other would respond and even take the lead. Extremely key for the Red Hawks were several nice passing plays and a plethora of open field dashfses for the goal, with defenders in pursuit.

Several of these breakaways came from Co-Captain Julia Geer, who helped tie the score just before the half and gave her team the lead early in the second. With the clock showing less than two minutes left in the first half, Midfielder Katie Speanburg converted a free-play to cut the SLU lead to 7-6. Geer followed this up by converting a steal by the defense at midfield, tying the score at 7 with just 24 seconds remaining in the half. At the start of the second, Geer opened the scoring with 2 more goals to bring her total to 4.

St. Lawrence came back from this deficit to tie the score once again, with 15 minutes left in the second half. This is when the intensity level began to rise, as the Red Hawks began to turn up the pressure.

With 10 minutes left in the half, Attacker Kim Yates connected on a free play, after Rensselaer had had multiple opportunities in the offensive zone. This was followed by one of the best plays of the game, as Defender Kaitlin O’Brien, anticipating the play, stole an outlet pass and then made a move toward the goal. She proceeded to make a nice pass to Midfielder Cater Ortolano who netted a goal over the top of the SLU tender.

This proved to be the difference as the Red Hawks went up 2. Attacker Emilie Wangerman added another score with 4:24 remaining as SLU cut the lead to 1, but the Red Hawks managed to control the ball the rest of the way to hold on.

With a victory over a tough SLU team in hand, Rensselaer moved on to the hapless Golden Knights of Clarkson. The Knights are at the bottom of the UCAA and have managed but one win on the season.

In this contest, the Red Hawks came out firing early and never looked back in what proved to be a blowout. This allowed Rensselaer to "share the wealth," as 10 players each had a point in the win.

Mielke opened the scoring with 2 goals before Attacker Erin Crocker did the same several minutes later. RPI’s scoring would go on unabated until the scoreboard showed a count of 9-0 and Clarkson finally broke through at the 5:16 mark of the first half.

The second half was much the same as the Red Hawks scored the first 7 goals to go up 18-3 and cruised to a 19-5 final.

Leading the way for the Red Hawks were Crocker and Geer, who each had five goals and an assist. Mielke, Yates, and Jennifer Celli each netted 2 goals, while Wangerman, Ortalano, and Mary Beth Cooley each netted a goal. Cooley also had an assist as did Mia Corcione and Beth MacKean.

With the wins, the Red Hawks improved to 7-2 on the season and 5-1 overall in the UCAA. The win over SLU is particularly impressive; the Saints had previously defeated Rochester, a team that blew the Red Hawks out.

Rensselaer has several tough challenges ahead, as they must face two top 10 teams —William Smith and Hamilton. If they can win either of these games, they would almost assure themselves a post-season birth. Even if they lose both, with their seven wins, they may already have made their case.