For the second straight year, the Rensselaer women’s hockey team deserved a bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.

For the second straight year, the Engineers were on the outside looking in.

After a loss to Manhattanville in the finals of the ECAC D-III East Tournament, RPI was the best team that did not receive an invite to the NCAA Tournament.

The Engineers put up a great showing in the ECAC D-III East Tournament, downing the New England College Pilgrims 4-3 in the semi-final match up.

The Pilgrims, fresh off an overtime upset of Southern Maine, looked to stun the Engineers early, but RPI’s offense struck first. Julie Aho scored an unassisted goal at 7:20 to give the Engineers a 1-0 lead. New England College tied the game at 10:40, with Ashley Watkins scoring a power play goal, with help from Mallory Berman and Megan Tepper.

RPI regained the lead with less than two minutes left in the period. Senior Katie Woodward gave the Engineers a 2-1 lead off an assist from Julie Welte. Meredith Langille scored the third RPI goal of the game 57 seconds later, and the Engineers went into the locker room after the first period up 3-1.

New England College cut the Engineer lead to one, with Ashley Koltenback scoring at 2:39. Woodward scored her second goal of the game at 7:30, with the lone assist going to Allison Malcolm.

The Pilgrims pulled within a goal late in the second, when Britney Vorgin scored off a feed from Tepper.

With the score 4-3, the RPI defense took hold of the game, keeping the Pilgrims scoreless. Sophomore Rosina Schiff made 29 saves en route to the 4-3 semi-final victory.

Going into the finals against Manhattanville, the Engineers were the only ECAC D-III East team to knock off the Valiants. Facing a tough, top-ranked team in their home arena, Rensselaer skated hard to take down the Valiants.

The championship game started on the wrong skate for the Engineers, taking a penalty at the 5:01. Just after the first penalty was killed, Kari Rabatin took a cross checking penalty at 7:15, and the Manhattanville power play paid off. At 9:06, Jessica Temesy put a puck past Schiff with help from Stephanie Burlton and Nicole Stephens. Stephens then took an obstruction interference penalty at 15:47, but the Engineers could not convert, and went into the first intermission down 1-0.

Manhattanville took another penalty 45 seconds into the second, but the RPI power play could not find the back of the net. The Valiants again found the net, with Melissa Hawkins scoring off a feed from Ashley Trimble at 7:55.

Woodward almost put the Engineers within one, but the referees waved off the apparent RPI goal, ruling that Woodward used a kicking motion to put the puck in the net.

RPI got a pair of golden opportunities later in the third period, with a pair of power plays. The Engineers took their timeout at 17:10, and took the opportunity to pull Schiff for the extra attacker. RPI skated six on four for the last minute and a half of the game, after another Stephens penalty. They could not solve Valiant goalie Nicole Elliott, who grabbed the shutout and the ECAC D-III East championship.

Although the Engineers did not receive an at large bid, they had an excellent year.

The four graduating seniors will be missed by the Engineers. Co-captain Katie Woodward scored seven goals and tallied five assists this year, pushing her career total at RPI to 32 goals and 40 assists in 101 games over four years. Co-captain Deanna Dougherty netted four goals and 10 assists this year, for a career total of 36 goals and 49 assists in 94 games at RPI. Assistant captain Maj Nixon provided a solid blue-line presence, and completed her career at RPI with four goals and 19 assists in 91 games. Lauren Smith tallied one goal this year, pushing her career tally to five goals and 12 assists.

Several Engineers were also honored by the conference. Sophomore Schiff was named to the ECAC D-III East first team, freshman Aho earned second team honors, and sophomore Welte and juniors Langille and Sondra Sherman earned honorable mentions.

The outlook is good for next year’s Engineers squad. Despite losing both captains and the assistant captain, RPI will still have strong leadership. The goaltending situation will remain strong, with Sciff, Julie Vallarelli, and Christina Johnston returning. The Engineers top five scorers will be returning next year, and they are only losing one defender.

Next year could be the year for the Engineers.