ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT women's hockey team begins play in the CHA with a home-and-home series against Syracuse this weekend. The Tigers will travel to Syracuse on Thursday (Oct. 27) and host the Orange on Saturday (Oct. 29).

LAST TIME OUT
RIT lost a pair of non-conference games at RPI by scores of 2-0 and 3-0, last weekend. Junior goalie Emma Stephen made 36 stops in Friday's loss, and sophomore goalie Sarah Coe 27 stops Saturday's loss.
 
CELEBRATING 2012 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
RIT is celebrating the 10th anniversary of winning the 2012 national championship this weekend.  The members of the team will be honored with a ceremony and puck-drop prior to the game against Syracuse at 7:30 p.m, as well as in between periods of the men's game against Holy Cross earlier that afternoon.
 
RIT beat Norwich, 4-1 in the championship game in front of a packed house at Ritter Arena. Laura Chamberlain was named Tournament Most Outstanding Player after stopping 27 shots, while Kourtney Kunichika finished with a goal and three assists. Current head coach Celeste Brown also tallied a goal and two assists during the contest.

ABOUT RIT
RIT enters the weekend second in the CHA averaging 2.30 goals per game and fourth, allowing 3.50 goals per contest. The Tigers are second in the league averaging 3.70 assists and 6.0 points per game. RIT is tops in the CHA in power play percentage, converting 5-of-25 (20.0 percent) with the extra skater and penalty minutes per game, averaging 6:36 per contest.
 
Sophomore forward Kylie Aquaro leads the team and is tied for first in the CHA with eight points and leads the league with seven assists. Sophomore forward Athena Vasdani is second on the team and tied for seventh in the league with six points, and is tied for fifth along with first-year forward Lexi Sung in the CHA with four assists. Senior forward Jaymee Nolan, junior forward Lindsay Maloney and graduate student forward Amy Dobson are tied for third on the team with five points apiece. Nolan is tied for second in the league with four goals, including a league-best two power play tallies. Dobson is third in the league averaging 3.40 shots per game, while Maloney is second in the league with 88 face-off wins.
 
Coe enters the weekend fifth in the CHA with a 3.44 goals against average, seventh with a .885 save percentage and sixth averaging 19.71 saves per game. Stephen is seventh in the CHA with a 3.98 goals against average, sixth with a .8908 save percentage and fifth averaging 33.4 saves per contest.
 
ABOUT SYRACUSE
Syracuse went 0-1-1 at the Ice Breaker Tournament last weekend, losing 3-0 to Clarkson and tying Holy Cross, 3-2. First-year forward Mik Todd tallied a goal and an assist against Holy Cross, while senior defensewoman Mae Batherson and sophomore forward Sarah Marchand each had two assists. Graduate student goalie Arielle DeSmet made 32 saves for the Orange.
 
Syracuse enters the weekend third in the CHA allowing 3.1 goals per game and fourth, averaging 1.4 goals per contest. The Orange are second in the league with the extra skater, converting 6-of-31 (19.4%) of their chances, and third killing off 25-of-31 penalties (80.6%).
 
Marchand and graduate student forward Lauren Bellefontaine are tied for first on the team in scoring with six points apiece. Marchand and Batherson are tied for second in the league with five assists.  Batherson is third on the team with five points.
 
DeSmet enters the weekend fourth in the CHA with a 2.67 goals against average and a .914 save percentage.
 
RIT VS. SYRACUSE
Syracuse is 28-11-4 all-time versus RIT. The Orange went 4-0 last season. The Tigers last win was a 7-4 victory on Nov. 1, 2019.