The Red Hawks split a pair of games last week; winning a game over Keene State College last Tuesday in their home opener, and falling to Oneonta State Thursday.
RPI won an impressive game over Keene State in their first game at the newly restored Harkness Field. Senior Sondra Sherman led the offense for the Red Hawks, tallying both shots on goal for RPI. At 20:38, one of Sherman’s shots found the back of the net, giving RPI a 1-0 lead at the half, despite getting out-shot 6-3.
Keene State kept upping the pressure in the second half, again pouring shots onto the swarming RPI defense. Amanda Lund anchored the defense for the Red Hawks, making five saves in the second period, eight overall.
Although the Red Hawks got out-shot 17-7, they managed to hold on to the 1-0 win to christen the new turf at Harkness.
RPI looked to continue their momentum through to a visit to Oneonta State. The Red Dragon defense looked to control the pace of the game, and succeeded from the start.
The first half was a rocky affair for the Red Hawks. The Oneonta State defense held RPI without a shot and yielded no penalty corners. The Red Dragon offense, however, took a stranglehold on the game. Oneonta State took seven shots in the first period, received 11 penalty corners, and found the back of the net once, when Sarah Johnson fired the ball past Lund off of a cross from Katie O’Brien.
The Red Dragon pressure continued in the second half, and the Red Hawks could not combat the Oneonta State offense. Justine Trybendis shot another ball past Lund off a crossing pass from Musu Jackson-Buckner to put the Red Dragons up 2-0. Brynne Hoover capped off the scoring in the game when she deflected home a Rachel Dansky shot.
RPI climbed back into the game in the second half, tallying five shots and managing two penalty corners. They still got badly out-shot and out-cornered by a tough Oneonta State team.
The split drops RPI’s record to 2-3.
The Red Hawks are back in action Friday versus the Skidmore Thoroughbreds in their first Liberty League match. The weekend home stand continues Saturday versus Union.
Rival Union currently stands at 1-4 and will play Vassar on Friday before returning the Capital District to face Rensselaer. Skidmore, who knocked RPI out of the UCAA tournament last year and eventually won the conference title, defated Union 5-1 in a earlier meeting between the two teams this season.
Friday’s game is at 3 pm, Saturday’s match is at 1 pm.
