Women's Hockey | 12/11/2011 6:19:00 PM

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AMHERST, MA - Senior Ali HIlls (Honeoye Falls, NY) scored the game's lone goal midway through the first period and sophomore goaltender #Laura Chamberlain (Norco, CA/LA Selects)# stopped all 32 shots she faced, as the No. 1 women's hockey team continued its perfect 12-0 start to the 2011-12 season with a 1-0 win over No.5 Amherst at Orr Rink on Sunday afternoon.

Just 10:25 into the contest, #Ariane Yokoyama (Van Nuys, CA/LA Selects)# fired a pass towards the front of the net that ricocheted off the skate of Hills and past Amherst goaltender Sinead Murphy for her first goal of the season.  That assist gives Yokoyama a point in all 12 games this season and extends her point-scoring streak to 21 games, dating back to last season.

From there, Chamberlain did the rest with the help of RIT's penalty killing unit, making several big saves.  She is now 3-0-0 all-time against Amherst with a 0.33 goals agianst average and an unbelievable .990 save percentage.  She has stopped 100-of-101 shots in three games against the Jeffs.  Overall, Chamberlain is 25-2-2 with eight shutouts in her brief RIT career.

RIT was whistled for nine penalties, totaling 29 minutes, while Amherst took just two penalties for four minutes.  The Tigers had to kill off a five-minute major early in the third period.

Amherst was 0-for-8 with the man-advantage, while RIT was just 0-for-2.  RIT was out-shot for the first time this season, 32-20.

Amherst was 0-for-3 on the power play in the second period and came up just shy of a goal when Emily Vitale hit the post late in the frame. The Tigers had a pair of great chances later in the period, but Murphy made the big saves, including a stop on a breakaway by #Marissa Maugeri (Ajax, Ontario/Durham West Lightning)# with 9:46 left.   
 
Amherst nearly found the equalizer during a power-play situation with three minutes to play when Vitale sent a pass from behind the net to Kaitlyn McInnis in tight, but Chamberlain made the stop at point-blank range.

Once RIT was back to even strength with 1:30 left, they kept the puck in the Amherst zone, preventing the Jeffs from pulling Murphy until there was only 11 seconds remaining in regulation.
 
Sunday marked the eighth consecutive Amherst-RIT meeting in which both teams were ranked nationally, with the Tigers holding a 5-2-1 edge over the Lord Jeffs. RIT is now 10-2-1 all-time against Amherst. In addition, RIT snapped Amherst's 11-game home winning streak.

Sophomore forward #Kourtney Kunichika (Fullerton, CA/LA Selects)#, who led the nation in scoring entering the game, was held off the scoresheet for the first time this season.

RIT is now 42-1-2 over its last 45 regular season games dating back to Jan. 30, 2010.

The Tigers return to action on Jan. 6-7, 2012, when they host Adrian for a pair of games at Ritter Arena.