ERIE, PA – The RIT women's hockey team (4-17-3, 1-9-0 CHA) fell to College Hockey America competitor Mercyhurst University (10-12-2, 7-2-1 CHA) by a score of 4-0 Saturday afternoon from Mercyhurst Ice Center.
 
Shots were 40-25 in favor of Mercyhurst. RIT was 0-for-6 on the power play while Mercyhurst was 2-for-3.
 
Jenna de Jonge (Abbotsford, British Columbia/George Elliot) took the loss in net for RIT with 36 saves. Kendall Cornine (Kinnelon, NJ/Morristown Beard) fired eight shots on goal for the Tigers, while Mallory Rushton (Amherst, Nova Scotia/New Hampton Prep) had four.
 
Sarah McDonnell recorded the shutout in net for Mercyhurst with 25 stops, including 14 in the opening period. Maggie Knott led the Lakers with a goal and two assists.Samantha Fiesler, Vilma Tanskanen and Brooke Hartwick also scored,
 
Brook Hartwick scored her eighth goal of the season with just less than four minutes to go in the first period off a pass from Summer-Rae Dobson on a power play to put the Lakers up 1-0. That would remain the score after one, despite RIT holding a 14-4 edge in shots.
 
Mercyhurst out-shot RIT 22-2 in the second period, but could only solve de Jonge once. Just over six minutes into the period, Tanskanen made it 2-0 for the Lakers off assists from Sarah Hine and Molly Blasen.
 
In the third, Mercyhurst notched their third goal on another power play seven and a half minutes in. Knott slapped one in off a pass from Emma Nuutinen to expand the Laker lead to 3-0. Fieseler scored with 11 seconds remaining to close out the scoring.
 
Mercyhurst leads the all-time series between the two schools, 20-4-0. The two teams also meet next month at the Gene Polisseni Center.
 
The Tigers are back in action next weekend, as College Hockey America foe Robert Morris comes to the Polisseni Center for a pair of games. Friday's game starts at 2 p.m., while Saturday's contest starts at 1 p.m.