The women’s hockey team closed out its 2001-02 season at the ECAC-East tournament Saturday. The Engineers were defeated by the host Manhattanville Valiants by a score of 5-1.
Manhattanville got out in front early, scoring twice in the first frame, including a short-handed goal by Ali Annunziato.
Rensselaer turned things up after that, outshooting the Valiants in each of the next two periods. However, Manhattanville’s Renee Kirnan was rock solid in goal, turning away 35 of 36 RPI shots in the game. Jennifer Mulick gave the Valiants a daunting three-goal lead at the 13:46 mark of the second period, and another goal by Annunziato midway through the third put the game out of reach for the Engineers.
RPI’s Jessica Malec broke up the shutout on an assist by Paula Durham with seven and a half minutes remaining, but the Engineers could muster no further scoring.
Manhattanville went on to beat RIT the next night to win the conference title and the No. 2 seed in the six-team Division-III tournament at Elmira; this year marks the first time the NCAA has held a national tournament for women’s hockey. The Valiants will play Bowdoin in the semis on Friday afternoon, and the finals will be at 7:30 the next night.
Engineer Head Coach Bill Cahill expressed pleasure at the play of his team this season.
“We made great strides,” he said. “Even the ones we didn’t win, we were in the games.”
Cahill has reason to be proud. In addition to an improved record (15-11-1, up from 12-10-2), home ice in the first round of the playoffs, and a postseason victory over Union, the Engineers put two players on the all-conference team: forward Andrea Poley and defenseman Kate Adams, who also took home ECAC-East Player of the Year honors.
The Engineers will lose seven seniors for next season, including Adams and Poley. However, “the nucleus returning is a good group,” according to Cahill, and he expects the team to do well once again.
