ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT women's hockey team returns to College Hockey America play against Penn State with a pair of weekend contests at the Gene Polisseni Center, Friday, Jan. 14 at 2 p.m. and Saturday, Jan. 15 at 1 p.m.
FOLLOW LIVE
All home games and select College Hockey America road contests this season will be streamed on
Stretch Internet. Live statistics for all games can be found at RITathletics.com while in-game updates can be found on Twitter by following @RITWHKY.
LAST TIME OUT
RIT enters this weekend's Penn State series after a pair of non-conference road games against LIU on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. The Tigers tied the Sharks 2-2 (Jan. 1) in the second game and fell, 4-3, in the first contest (Dec. 31). With the Jan. 1 tie, RIT extended its unbeaten streak to four in games played starting a new year with the last coming Jan. 6 in a 1-0 CHA victory at Mercyhurst. In the team's last game (Jan. 1), freshman defender
Kyla Bear registered her first multi-point collegiate game with a pair of primary assists on both RIT goals and finished the series against LIU with three points. Senior forward
Abby Davies' pair of goals in the Jan. 1 tie at LIU gave her a team-high six as she finished the weekend series with three points.
CHA HONORS
Bear was named CHA Rookie of the Week for her three-point performance in the LIU series on Jan. 3. Freshman forward
Athena Vasdani was named CHA Rookie of the Month (December) for her four-point outing in the team's final two games of December.
DEFENSIVE STATS
RIT continues to lead the nation in team saves with 804 and the CHA in team blocked shots with 401. Senior defender
Taylor Sims is second the nation in blocked shots with 59, while sophomore defender
Mia Tsilemos is tied for third with 53.
POINT STREAKS
Three Tigers are on two-game point streaks that includes senior forwards Davies and
Jordan Marchese (1g, 1a) and Bear (3a), while Vasdani is on a three-game point streak (1g, 4a).
POWER PLAY CLICKING
Three of the five RIT goals in the LIU series were scored on the power play with the other two scored seconds after a Tiger power play expired.
TAYLOR-MADE GOALTENDING
Junior goaltender
Taylor Liotta finished with 29 saves on 31 shots for a .935 save percentage in the Jan. 1 game against LIU. Combined with her previous series against Lindenwood, the junior netminder finished her last three games with a .953 save percentage and 1.60 goals-against average.
TIGER SCORING LEADERS
Sophomore forward
Lindsay Maloney continues to lead the team in points with nine. Vasdani led all RIT scorers with four points during its last weekend series (Dec. 31 – Jan. 1) and tied Davies and sophomore forward
Emma Roland for second-place in team points with eight.
ABOUT THE NITTANY LIONS
The Nittany Lions are 11-8-2 overall after falling 6-1 in its last matchup in a non-conference loss to Cornell in its first home game of the second half of the season (Jan. 11). Prior to that, Penn State went 1-1 (Jan. 1-2) in the 'Battle in the 'Burgh' in Pittsburgh, Pa. Penn State lost 4-3 in OT to St. Cloud (Jan. 1) before rebounding with a 3-0 victory over Boston University (Jan. 2). Penn State is 4-2-0 against CHA opponents this season. Mercyhurst picked up a win in the Nittany Lions first CHA matchup. Overall in CHA play, Penn State fell in its opening conference game to Mercyhurst, but picked up a win the next day in that series. Penn State swept the series versus Lindenwood and followed that up with a split against CHA leader, Syracuse, back in late October.
RIT VS. PENN STATE – HISTORY
RIT and the Nittany Lions have faced each other 45 times in their history with Penn State coming out with a 26-16-3 edge, although the Tigers hold the edge in home contests at 13-9. In the most recent matchups, the Nittany Lions beat RIT in a pair of 5-0 contests in 2021 (Feb. 19-20) in Rochester.
