The Red Hawks shut out Brockport on Saturday and St. Lawrence on Sunday to win the ECAC Northeast Region tournament and set a new school record for wins in a season.

Rensselaer was the second seed, but ended up hosting the tournament when the top-seeded Saints’ home field was not available for the weekend. RPI’s first round opponent was a tough SUNY-Brockport squad. Though the Red Hawks racked up 28 shots over the course of the game, they were able to break through only once. Midfielder Anne Drames broke away on a pass from Jessica Chetuck and beat Brockport’s Mary Maslanka with 11 minutes left in the first half.

That was all the scoring the Red Hawks needed, as the defense tightened up significantly in the second half, allowing Brockport only a single shot on goal. Regina Primm had three saves in recording the shutout. The Saints defeated SUNY-Geneseo in their semifinal match, setting up Sunday’s championship game.

St. Lawrence outperformed the Red Hawks in the first half, taking 11 shots to RPI’s six. Primm, however, was up to the task in goal—she had eight saves in the game, including five in the first half, to keep the Saints off the board.

Coming back out for the second half, Rensselaer wasted no time in breaking the scoreless tie. Susan Gonyea, the team’s leading scorer with 10 goals and four assists, kicked a long cross pass to Forward Heather Bauby, who buried it in the back of the net.

Bauby, the tournament MVP, also assisted on RPI’s second goal, heading the ball to Drames, who converted with 12:13 remaining in the game to give the Red Hawks a 2-0 lead that St. Lawrence could not topple.

The Red Hawks close out their 2001 season with a 17-3 record, topping the previous mark of 16 wins set in 1996. For next year, they will lose the services of Bauby and Amanda Gyllstrom, the team’s second and third leading scorers. Defender Jennifer Rutkunas and midfielders Jill Vanis and Amy Gontarek will also be graduating in May; Gyllstrom, Rutkunas, and Vanis all started in every one of the Red Hawks’ games this season.

The presence of these players will be sorely missed; however, the team has a solid core of veterans, and this year’s freshman class—including Chetuck, Drames, and Primm—has already made huge contributions to the team, so RPI should find itself well prepared for a repeat performance in the 2002 season.