ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT women's hockey team hosts Lindenwood with a pair of games this weekend in Conference Hockey America play beginning on Friday, Feb. 11 at 6:00 p.m. and Saturday, Feb. 12 at 2:00 p.m. at the Gene Polisseni Center.
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 after a pair of setbacks at Mercyhurst by scores of 5-1 (Feb. 4) and 3-2 (Feb. 5) with the latter game ending in overtime after RIT junior forward
Jaymee Nolan forced the extra session with her first tally of the season.
SENIOR DAY
Three seniors will be honored prior to Saturday's game and include forward
Abby Davies, defender
Taylor Sims and senior forward and captain
Jordan Marchese.
CHA WEEKLY HONORABLE MENTIONS
Sims was a defensive CHA honorable mention after recording another double-digit block weekend with 10 against Mercyhurst during last weekend's series.
Junior goaltender
Taylor Liotta was a goaltender honorable mention after finishing the Mercyhurst series with a .962 save percentage and a 2.17 goals-against average that included a 55-save performance in the 3-2 overtime loss on Saturday and 20 saves in the third period of a 5-1 loss on Friday. Liotta was named the RIT's Female Athlete of the Week, Tuesday.
Freshman defender
Kyla Bear was a rookie honorable mention after having the primary assist on the Tigers' first goal in the 3-2 overtime loss to Mercyhurst that gave her a share of the team lead in defender scoring with freshman
Bailey Kehl at five points each. Bear fired off a team-high three shots in the opening game of the series and finished the weekend with six blocks and even in plus-minus.
ON THE VERGE OF A BREAKTHROUGH
RIT has a pair of ties since the 2022 calendar year began. Entering the third period this season, the Tigers have either led, tied or trailed by a single goal in more than half their contests. RIT's last game was its fourth OT game and the third time the Tigers took a different CHA opponent to an extra session this season.
UPCOMING SCHOLARSHIPS
A proposal was passed at the NCAA Convention on Jan. 22 which will allow RIT to offer scholarships to its Division I women's hockey student-athletes moving forward.
DEFENSIVE STATS
RIT continues to lead the nation in team saves with 1,029. Sims co-leads the nation in blocked shots with 83. Sophomore defender
Mia Tsilemos is fifth nationally in blocks with 68. Bear is second among freshmen players nationally in blocks with 58 and is tied for 11th in the country. Marchese leads all forwards nationally in blocked shots with 50 and is tied for 24th nationally.
TIGER SCORING LEADERS
Sophomore forward
Emma Roland's 11 points lead the team and her seven goals are tied for the team lead with Davies. Freshman forward
Athena Vasdani leads the team in assists with a half-dozen.
ABOUT THE LIONS
The Lions are fourth in the CHA with six points and have a 3-7-0 conference record and a 5-19-0 overall record. Lindenwood enters this weekend's games after dropping a pair of road contests at conference-leading Syracuse last time out. The Lions fell 6-1 on Jan. 28 and followed that with a 4-3 loss on Jan 29. Graduate student forward Sierra Burt's 14 assists and 20 points lead Lindenwood, while senior defender Maddison Stitt co-lead the team with Burt in goals with six.
RIT VS. LINDENWOOD – HISTORY
The Tigers are 14-16-6 all-time against Lindenwood and undefeated against RIT in its last five starts. RIT fell to Lindenwood earlier in the season during the first matchups by scores of 4-1 (Dec. 3) and 3-1 (Dec. 4). During that series, Liotta didn't allow an even strength goal and finished the weekend with a .963 save percentage and a 1.41 goals-against average, after stopping 52 of 54 shots in 85:17.
