ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT women’s hockey team (1-2-1) fell for the second straight day, 4-1 to visiting Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at the Gene Polisseni Center on Saturday afternoon.
Rensselaer scored twice in the first 4:10 to stun the RIT faithful in town to celebrate Brick City Homecoming & Family Weekend. Jaimie Grigsby had a goal and two assists, while Shayna Tomlinson added a goal and an assist. Amanda Kimmerle and Madeline Burnett also scored for the Engineers, while Lovisa Selander made 32 saves.
Kendall Cornine (Kinnelon, NJ/Morristown Beard) scored RIT’s lone goal for the second straight game. Stella Haberman (Golden Valley, MN/Minnesota Whitecaps) assisted on Cornine’s goal for her first collegiate point. In net, Jessi O’Leary (Woodstock, New Brunswick/Athol Murray) made 30 saves.
Rensselaer out-shot RIT, 34-33. The Engineers were 1-for-4 on the power-play, while RIT was 0-for-1.
“I thought RPI did a good job playing with more jam than us today,” said Bruce B. Bates Women’s Hockey Coach Scott McDonald. “I thought we got beat to a lot of loose pucks, especially around the net and that was the difference.”
Burnett opened the scoring just 49 seconds into the game, as her long shot from the left point floated over O’Leary and in for her second goal of the season. Just over three minutes later, Kimmerle beat O’Leary with a shot from the slot to make it 2-0.
Cornine would draw RIT to within one just before the halfway point of the first period, as she fired home a rebound after Selander stopped the initial shot by Haberman.
Grigsby would give Rensselaer its two-goal lead back on a power-play early in the second period.
In the third, RIT would try to mount a comeback, but Selander would make a handful of key stops, including two on Cornine from point-blank range midway through the frame.
Tomlinson put the game away with her second goal of the weekend with 2:58 left in regulation.
RIT leads the all-time series between the two schools, 15-12-4.
This weekend marks the start of six straight home games to close out October for the Tigers. RIT hosts Yale University for a pair of games on Oct. 20-21 and opens league play with two contests against Lindenwood on Oct. 27-28. RIT hosts Yale on Oct. 20 at 2 p.m. from the Gene Polisseni Center.
