SYRACUSE, NY – Logan Land (Turkey Point, Ontario/Holy Trinity Catholic) scored her first collegiate goal, but the RIT women's hockey team was not able to overcome a Stephanie Grosso hat trick, as the Tigers (1-4-0, 0-1-0 CHA) opened up College Hockey America play with a 7-1 loss to rival Syracuse (2-3, 1-0-0 CHA) on Wednesday night at the Tennity Ice Pavilion.
 
Land scored the lone RIT goal off an assist by Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School), with 28 seconds remaining in the second period.

In goal, Jenna de Jonge (Abbotsford, British Columbia/George Elliot) started and stopped 16-of-20 shots for the loss in her second collegiate game, playing the first 23:19. Brooke Stoddart (Elmvale, Ontario/Elmvale) played the final 36:41, stopping 15-of-18 shots.
 
Grosso scored her three goals in the first two periods of play and added a pair of assists for a five-point night. Alysha Burriss, Nicole Ferrara, Nicole Renault, and Emily Costales also added goals for the Orange, who was able to avenge a loss from the last time the teams met, a 2-1 decision in double overtime in the 2015 CHA Championship game. Melissa Piacentini added four assists, while Jenn Gilligan made 15 saves.
 
The Orange held the Tigers to a season-low 17 shots in the game. Syracuse also converted on the power play, going 2-for-7 on the night, while the Tigers went 0-for-4 on the power play.
 
Early on the game was physical. RIT had to kill off an early power play chance by Syracuse, and were two seconds away from doing so, when Grosso played a blocked shot from just to the right of the net, poking home the rebound for the power-play goal, 9:02 into the first period.  
 
Just over a minute later, the Orange took advantage again, as Burris corralled a rebound off a shot in front of the net, firing it to the left of the de Jonge to double up the score.
 
Syracuse put the game away with three second period goals. Just 10 seconds into the period, Grosso received the puck and deked a couple of Tiger defenders, beating de Jonge to her left after a slight fake right. She would complete the hat-trick with 5:27 left in the period.
 
With 28 seconds to go in the second period, and the Tigers down 5-0, Land took control of the puck off a Clayton pass in the far circle, and walked it across ice, finishing low to the right of Gilligan for the goal.
 
Syracuse would later respond with two third-period goals to end the game.
 
"Syracuse came out fired up," said Bruce B. Bates Women's Hockey Coach Scott McDonald. "They had this game circled on the calendar from last year, they're a tenacious team, and we weren't tonight."
 
The Tigers continue their road trip with two games against Union (0-3-2) on Friday and Saturday afternoon, with both games to begin at 3 p.m.