ERIE, PA – Despite holding three different one-goal leads, the RIT women's hockey team (3-6-0, 0-3-0 CHA) dropped a heartbreaker at league foe Mercyhurst (2-5-1, 2-0-0 CHA), 4-3 in overtime from the Mercyhurst Ice Center.
 
With RIT leading 3-2 late in regulation, Mercyhurst would get a power-play and tie the game, as Sarah Robello would fire a shot past RIT goaltender Jenna de Jonge (Abbotsford, British Columbia/George Elliot) with 1:38 left in regulation. With 2:07 left in overtime, Jenna Dingledein would come into the RIT zone and from the top of the left face-off circle rip a shot past de Jonge for the winner.
 
Reagan Rust (McKinney, TX/Moon Area) scored her first collegiate goal for the Tigers, while Carly Payerl (Kitchener, Ontario/Resurrection Catholic) added a shorthanded goal, and Cassie Clayton (Pickering, Ontario/PEAC School) tallied a power-play goal. Rust would add an assist, while Kathryn Kennedy (Hamilton, Ontario) tallied her first collegiate point, an assist. In goal, de Jonge stopped 28 shots.
 
Robello, Dingledein, J'nai Mahadeo, and Rachel Smith scored for the Lakers. Smith added a pair of assists, while Sarah Hine dished out three assists. In net, Sarah McDonnell made 16 saves in the win.
 
Mercyhurst out-shot RIT, 32-19, including 27-9 after the opening period. Mercyhurst was 2-for-4 with the man-advantage, while RIT was 1-for-4. The Tigers scored their third shorthanded goal of the season in just nine games, second most in all of Division I.

"Today was a tough one for us," said Scott McDonald, the Bruce B. Bates Women's Hockey Coach at RIT. "We played hard to gain the lead three separate times, but costly penalties and inconsistent play throughout the game was our downfall in the end."
 
RIT got on the board first, just 4:18 in to the contest, as Rust slammed home a loose puck off a rebound in tight after Kennedy had her shot from the high circle stopped, but not corralled by McDonnell. Lindsay Stenason (Oakville, Ontario/Appleby Collegiate) also assisted on the goal, causing a turnover in the neutral zone.
 
Mahadeo would tie the game on a power-play midway through the second period, ripping a hard shot from the slot past de Jonge.
 
Payerl made it 2-1 with RIT's third shorthanded goal of the season, using a great individual effort to break free from a pair of Mercyhurst defenders after grabbing a loose puck in the neutrsl zone and with a player draped all over her, backhanded a shot past McDonnell for her third goal of the season.
 
After Mercyhurst tied the game at 2-2 late in the second period, Clayton would give RIT its third lead of the game just 4:44 into the third period, as RIT was on a power-play. Clayton would win a face-off in the Mercyhurst zone with Rust corralling the puck in the corner. Rust would fire a pass behind the net to Paton, who would give the puck right back to Rust at the side of the net. Rust wheeled and quickly found Clayton all alone in front for the easy tap in for her third goal of the year.
 
Mercyhurst leads the all-time series between the two schools, 13-3-0. Mercyhurst heads to RIT for a two-game series on Feb. 12-13 from the Gene Polisseni Center.
 
Last night, the Lakers defeated RIT by a score of 5-0. The Lakers scored three times in a span of 2:48 in the second period to snap a scoreless tie, while holding RIT to just 11 shots on goal.
 
The Tigers are back in action next weekend, as Robert Morris comes to town for a pair of games. On Friday, RIT and Robert Morris faceoff from the Gene Polisseni Center at 7 p.m., while Saturday's contest begins at 3 p.m. After Saturday's contest, the Tigers will hold their annual Skate With the Tigers event.