Box Score

TROY, N.Y. – Junior Rachel Scofield recorded a career-high eight points to help the 18th-ranked Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's lacrosse team to an, 18-9, victory over Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), this afternoon in Liberty League action from Renwyck Field. With the win, the Engineers improve to 10-2 overall (6-0 Liberty), while the Tigers drop to 8-5 (3-3 Liberty).
 
Scofield (Albany, NY/South Colonie), who now has 14 points (6 goals, 8 assists) in her last two games, picked up four goals and four assists on the day, to lead all scorers. She was aided offensively by sophomore Jamie Wakefield (Windsor, CT/Windsor), who had five goals and senior Alissa Peterson (Gaithersburgh, MD/Quince Orchard), who had two goals and two assists.
 
The Tigers saw junior Ashleigh Caruso (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) score a team-best three goals, while freshman Sage Sarkis (Honeoye Falls, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima) had a club-high four points on a goal and three assists.
 
RIT took a pair of early leads, including the game's first goal, which was scored by senior Loren Azlein (Cleveland, OH/Gilmour Academy). The Engineers fought back to take a 2-1 edge, before the Tigers answered with two of their own, by Sarkis and Azlein's second of the contest and 11th of the year.
 
Trailing 3-2, Rensselaer went on a 4-0 scoring run to take a 6-3 advantage. The two teams then traded goals until two straight from RIT, including senior Shelby Vakiener's (Fairport, NY/Fairport) 51st of the season, brought the visitors to within 8-7, with 4:48 left in the first half.
 
Rensselaer closed out the first half scoring three straight times to take an 11-7 lead into the break. The Engineers outshot the Tigers 17-13 in the opening stanza, and won the draw control battle, 13-6.
 
Wakefield and Scofield each netted their 16th goals of the year to get the scoring started in the second half. Sophomore Erin Riley (West Nyack, NY/Clarkstown South) then picked up one of her three assists on the day, when she found junior Marissa Page (Schenectady, NY/Guilderland) alone in front of the net to make it 14-7, less than four minutes in.
 
The RPI defense tightened in the second half allowing just two RIT goals on 12 shots. Engineers' senior goaltender Allie Arnal (Lakewood, NY/Phillips Exeter Academy) was instrumental in the effort, making a number of point blank saves. Six of her seven stops in the game came after halftime. RIT senior netminder Katelyn Crane (Palmyra, NY/Palmyra-Macedon) finished with nine saves.
 
After the Tigers drew to within 14-8 on Carsuso's 20th tally of the season, Rensselaer put the game away with another 4-0 run.
 
 
The Engineers back in action tomorrow afternoon, when they host the University of Rochester at Renwyck Field (2pm). The game will be streamed live on RPI TV (www.rpitv.org).