Box Score

BURLINGTON, Vt. – Freshman Ali Svoboda scored a pair of special teams goals in the second period to lead the Rensselaer women's hockey team to a, 4-0, victory over Vermont, this afternoon, in non-conference action from Gutterson Fieldhouse. With the win, the Engineers improve to 2-0-2 on the season, while the Catamounts drop to 0-1-2.

After a scoreless first period in which the Engineers held an 8-1 edge in shots, Svoboda (Arlington Heights, IL/Chicago Mission) tallied the game's first goal at 3:33 of the second, burying a short-handed marker, with classmate Kathryn Schilter (Aurora, ON/Toronto Jr. Aeros) picking up the lone assist.

Senior captain Alisa Harrison (Vienna, VA/Washington Pride) gave the visitors a 2-0 lead, just over five minutes later (8:51), when she beat Vermont junior netminder Kelci Lanthier (Mt. Airy, MD/Mercyhurst College) on a low shot. Junior Sierra Vadner (Apple Valley, MN/Minnesota Thoroughbreds) and sophomore Jordan Smelker (Anchorage, AK/Team Alaska 19U) earned the assists on Harrison's fourth goal in as many contests.

Svoboda put the Engineers up, 3-0, with a power-play goal at 13:28 of the second stanza. Her slap-shot from the left point found its way through traffic and in off the left post. Vadner worked the puck to senior Laura Guillemette (Ste-Marie-de-Beauce, PQ/Notre Dame), who dished to to Svoboda at the blue line.

At the 11:24 mark of the third period, Svoboda nearly finished off the hat-trick, but her break-away try was stop by the left pad of Lanthier (0-1-1), who finished with 17 saves.

Junior Andie Le Donne (Toronto, ON/Durham Lightning) capped the scoring just a minute later, when her drive from the right point slipped past a screen in front of the Catamounts net and in for her first of the year. The power-play goal came with assists to Smelker and Harrison.

Rensselaer freshman goaltender Kelly O'Brien (Madison, WI/Madison Capitals) earned her second shutout in as many starts this year, stopping all 18 shots she faced, including 10 in the second period alone.

The Engineers win over Vermont was the first since February 6, 2000, when RPI took home a, 3-1, victory in the ECAC East Division III league tournament.

Rensselaer is back on the ice next weekend, when it visits Niagara for a two-game series, beginning Friday at 7pm. The Catamounts head to Grand Forks, N.D., to take on sixth-ranked North Dakota for a pair of games on Saturday (3pm) and Sunday (3pm).