TROY, N.Y. – ECAC Hockey has announced its weekly women's ice hockey award winners for the week ending January 31st and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) student-athlete
Sonja van der Bliek was named the Goaltender of the Week. Also recognized was
Kendra Dunlop, who was named to the Weekly Honor Roll.
A junior out of Toronto, Ont., van der Bliek backstopped the Engineers to a critical three-point weekend against Quinnipiac and Princeton last week, stopping 45 of the 46 shots she faced. As a result, RPI moved into a three-way tie for third in the conference standings. In a 1-0 shutout against the Bobcats, she stopped all 17 shots in 60:00 minutes of action. She then posted 28 saves with just one goal allowed in a 1-1 tie with the Tigers the following day.
This is the first Goaltender of the Week honor for van der Bliek's this season and the fourth of her career. She has appeared in 25 games this season, all as a starter with a 1.88 goals against average and a .923 save percentage in 1466:06 minutes played. She also has 550 saves, including three games with at least 30 stops.
A former standout with the Toronto Jr. Aeros, van der Bliek has started 15 of the team's 16 ECAC Hockey contests, posting a 7-4-4 record with a 1.59 GAA and a .934 save %. She is currently sixth among ECAC Hockey goalies in goals against average and fifth in save percentage.
van der Bliek, who is the program's single season record holder in a number of categories, is also the all-time record holder for most games played (75), most games started (74), most minutes played (4511:46), most saves (1679) and most shutouts (15). Her 37 career victories (37-27-11) are just three shy of tying the all-time mark (40).
Dunlop, a junior center who hails from Granum, Alb., earned her recognition after scoring both goals for the Engineers last week. She tallied the lone goal in the win over the Bobcats and netted the game-tying tally against the Tigers.
A former standout at the Warner Hockey School, Dunlop has seven goals and eight assists for 15 points in 27 games. Ten of her 15 points have come against conference opponents.
Rensselaer (11-10-6; 8-4-4 ECACH), which is tied with Harvard and Princeton in the conference standings, heads to the North Country this weekend. The Engineers are at #3 Clarkson on Friday (7pm) before heading to St. Lawrence on Saturday (4pm).
