ROCHESTER, N.Y. - The RIT women's hockey team opens the 2022-23 season with a pair of non-conference games at UConn, Friday and Saturday. The Tigers return after a strong finish to 2021-22, beating Lindenwood, 6-4 in the CHA Quarterfinal for head coach Celeste Brown.

All home games and selected CHA road contests will be streamed on FloHockey this season. WITR will broadcast a full schedule of RIT women's hockey home games this season. Links to live webcasts and statistics for all games can be found at RITathletics.com while in-game updates can be found on Twitter by following @RITWHKY. 

Sophomore goalie Sarah Coe emerged as one of the top goalies in the CHA last season. She was named to the CHA All-Rookie team after setting single-season program records in saves (879), games played (28), and minutes (1,412). A three-time CHA Rookie of the Week selection, Coe was the CHA Goaltender of the Month for February. Coe was tops in the CHA, averaging 31.39 saves per game and was eighth in the league in save percentage while earning CHA All-Academic honors.

Notable returning players include senior forwards Hana Solinger and Jaymee Nolan along with junior forwards Emma Roland and Lindsay Maloney. Roland led the team with 18 points on nine goals and a team-high nine assists. Maloney was third (7) in goals last season and fourth in points (12), while leading the team in with four power-play goals. Solinger tied for seventh on the team with nine points, including six assists. On defense, junior Mia Tsilemos finished second in the CHA with 85 blocked shots.

RIT features 16 underclassmen in 2022-23. Sophomore forward Athena Vasdani led all RIT first-years with five goals, eight assists, and 13 points last season. Sophomore forward Kylie Aquaro finished fifth on the team with 11 points (four goals, seven assists), and sophomore defender Kyla Bear finished fifth in the CHA with 64 blocked shots and sixth on the team with 10 points (two goals, six assists). The Tigers welcome six first-year players in goalie Sophia Bellina, defensewoman Camryn Brownschidle, forward Ella Fesette, defensewoman  Hayley Glazer, defensewoman Karly Kolssak, and forward Lexi Sung.
 
The Tigers welcome graduate student forward Amy Dobson (Penn State) and junior forward Nicole Ness (St. Cloud State) to the team in 2022-23.  Dobson scored 11 goals and 19 assists for the Nittany Lions last season, tying for third in the CHA in power-play goals her junior year.  Ness spent two seasons at St. Cloud State University, where she played in 46 games for the Huskies.
 
UConn finished 24-9-4 last season, falling to Northeastern in the Hockey East Championship. The Huskies were picked to finish sixth in the 2022-23 Hockey East Preseason Coaches Poll. UConn lost its top-six scorers from last season with junior forward Jada Habisch returning as the team's top scrorers, finishing seventh with 17 points (13g, 4a). Sophomore goalie Megan Warrener finished with 12 wins last season and posted a 1.28 goals against average and a .944 save percentage.
 
Senior Amy Landry scored in the Huskies lost 2-1 loss to Quinnipiac in last weekend's exhibition game. Tia Chan made 15 saves, while Warrener finished with nine saves .
 
UConn is 2-1 all-time versus RIT. The Huskies won a pair of games at the Gene Polisseni Center last season. RIT goalie Sarah Coe made 40 saves while senior Jordan Marchese finished with a goal and an assist in the 4-3 loss. Coe made 39 stops the following day in a 6-2 loss.