ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The RIT women's hockey team hosts a pair of Atlantic Hockey America games against Mercyhurst on Friday and Saturday (Jan. 16-17). Friday's game begins at 6:05 p.m. and Saturday's game starts at 3:05 p.m.
 
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Watch: www.flohockey.tv
Friday PxP/Color – Rocky Perotta and Jacob Campbell
Saturday Pxp/Color – Rocky Perotta, Jacob Campbell and Scott Biggar
Local Audio: WITR 89.7 FM
Web Audio: witr.rit.edu 
Live Stats:  ritathletics.com/sidearmstats/whockey
Twitter: @RITWHKY
TV: SportsNet Pittsburgh
 
LAST TIME OUT:
RIT swept a pair of games at Delaware on January 8-9, winning 3-2 on Thursday and 8-1 the following day. Thursday, first year defender Lily Andreassi tied the game at 2-2 on her first collegiate goal in the third period. First year forward Tilli Keranen tallied the game-winning goal with 57 seconds remaining in regulation. Senior forward Jaidan Fahrny scored a goal and junior forward Addie Alvarez had two assists. Senior goalie Sophia Bellina made 18 saves to earn the win in goal.
 
Friday, junior defender Emma Pickering and sophomore forward Brac Kelley each tallied two goals and an assist. First year defender Cassandra Kehler handed out a career-high three assists, and Keranen had two assists. Senior forward Lexi Sung and sophomore forward Zoe Ziotas each had a goal and an assist. Bellina made 13 saves in net for the Tigers.   
 
ABOUT RIT:
RIT enters the weekend tied with Mercyhurst for second in the Atlantic Hockey America standings with a 9-7-0 conference record and 28 points. RIT is three points ahead of Syracuse who is fourth with 25 points.
 
The Tigers average 3.1 goals per game and allow 2.3 goals per contest. The Tigers are 29-of-87 (33.3%) on the power play and 67-of-84 (79.7%) on the penalty kill. RIT has won 701-of-1,372 (51.1%) of its faceoffs and blocked 334 shots.
 
RIT features six players with six or more goals and eight players with 10 or more points. Alvarez leads the team with 25 points and 16 assists. Pickering is second on the team with 24 points and is tied with Alvarez and Kelley for first on the team with nine goals. Kelley (9g, 7a), Keranen (8g, 8a) and sophomore forward Kailey Favro (2g, 14a) are tied for third on the team with 16 points apiece.
 
Pickering leads the team with 67 blocked shots. First year defender Laura Dyke is second with 32 blocks and first year defender Riley Gramlich and sophomore defender Madison Buziak are tied for third with 30 blocks each. Junior forward Linda Rulle is fifth with 29 blocks.
 
Bellina is 11-10 with a 2.34 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. Sophomore Brenna McNamara is 2-1 with a 1.32 goals-against average and a .948 save percentage.

ABOUT MERCYHURST:
Mercyhurst enters the weekend tied with RIT for second in the Atlantic Hockey America standings with a 10-5-1 conference record and 28 points. The Lakers split a pair of conference games against No. 4 Penn State last weekend, losing 3-0 on Friday and winning 4-3 in overtime the following day. Sophomore goalie Magdalena Luggin made 26 saves in Friday's loss. Senior defender Payten Evans scored the game-winner in overtime in Saturday's win. First year forward Berlin Lolacher scored two goals, sophomore forward Regina Metzler had three assists and Luggin made 36 saves in goal.
 
Mercyhurst enters the weekend third in Atlantic Hockey America averaging 2.85 goal per game and second allowing 2.23 goals per contest. The Lakers are third in the AHA converting 20-of-84 (.238 percent) of their power play chances and first killing off 66-of-77 (85.7%) of their penalties. Mercyhurst has won 737-of-1,446 face offs (51.0%) and is sixth the AHA averaging 12.62 blocked shots per game.  
 
First year forward Julia Perjus and sophomore forward Julia Schalin are tied for first on the team and tied for fourth in the AHA with 24 points apiece. Perjus is fifth in the league with 12 goals and Schalin is second in the league with 16 assists. Metzler and junior forward Sofia Nuutinen is tied for third on the team and ninth in the league with 20 points apiece. Nuutinen is tied for fourth in the league with 15 assists and Metzler is tenth in the conference with 13 assists.
 
Sophomore defender Abby Poitras leads Mercyhurst and is seventh in the AHA with 50 blocked shots. Evans is second on the team with 38 blocked shots and senior defender Makayla Javier is third with 35 blocks.
 
Luggin is 10-9-2. She is fifth in the AHA with a 2.40 goals-against average, fourth with a .922 save percentage and fourth averaging 27.77 saves per game.
 
RIT VS. MERCYHURST:
Mercyhurst is 46-9-2 all-time against RIT. The two teams split a pair of games on Nov. 14-15. The Lakers took game one, 1-0, while the Tigers came back to win 1-0 the following day. First year defender Riley Gramlich scored the game-winning goal and Bellina finished with 46 saves.