RIVALRY WEEKEND
Rensselaer (7-14-5, 4-8-2 ECACH) and rival Union (6-16-4, 4-9-1 ECACH) showdown in a weekend series as the Dutchwomen play host Friday night (6pm) while the Saturday game (3pm) will take place at the Times Union Center in Albany, NY for the Inaugural Mayor's Cup on the women's side.
 
SO CLOSE
Junior Lovisa Selander came up with 36 saves with the Engineer defense registering 20 blocks, their 5th highest margin on the season, but #6 Cornell came up with a 1-0 win last Friday night… the Big Red's victory was RPI's third loss to a nationally ranked team by a mere one goal… Cornell's Kristen O'Neill scored the third period game winner on Madlynne Mill's assist… Early in the first period, RPI's Aimee Raithby had a chance to put Rensselaer up 1-0 on a penalty shot, but the freshman's attempt was saved by Marlene Boissonnault… senior Shayna Tomlinson was a force to be reckoned with in faceoffs have won a game high 73.9%... on the defensive end, freshman Madeleine Burnett paced the Engineers with four blocked shots.
 
RAIDERS TOO MUCH FOR ENGINEERS
On the second leg of their conference road trip last week, #4 Colgate upended RPI 5-0… the Raiders' Olivia Zafuto (two goals) and Bre Wilson-Bennett (two assists) combined for four points… junior netminder Kira Bombay recorded a career-high 37 saves.
 
RPI LEADERS
Tomlinson (five goals, 11 assists) and junior Jaimie Grigsby (eight goals, eight assists) are both leading Rensselaer with 16 points each… Grigsby ranks 19th in the ECACH in goals… sophomore Sabrina Repaci (three goals, eight assists) rounds out the top point getters with 12 points… Burnett paces RPI rookies with six points (three goals, three assists) with the freshman ranking 17th in the conference in freshman scoring… junior Josefine Hansen tops defensemen scoring with seven points (three goals, four assists)… seniors Marisa Raspa and Whitney Renn currently lead the Engineers in penalty minutes with 18 each.
 
ENGINEERS GOALTENDING
Selander, the Rensselaer single-season and career saves record holder, is 7-13-5 on the year with a 2.27 goals against average and a .932 save percentage with 24 starts…the junior ranks nationally in save percentage (10th NCAA-DI, 4th ECACH)… Selander has registered one shutout this year in a 0-0 tie against UConn back in October for her seventh career shutout… the Swedish netminder registered a season-high 46 saves at Princeton on November 10 with her career high 66 saves coming at #5 Quinnipiac on February 27, 2016 in the ECACH quarterfinals… Bombay is 0-1-1 with the tie decision coming against New Hampshire with 29 saves… the junior has a 1.79 goal against average with a .949 save percentage over four appearances.
 
ALL-TIME VS. UNION
The oldest series in Rensselaer program history, RPI holds a dominating 31-3-5 advantage in the 39-game series... the Engineers took the first meeting between the two sides on February 6, 1996 at Achilles Center 6-1… after Rensselaer won eight games in row, Union won their first game of the series 1-0 on January 27, 2002… RPI then went on to win the following three meetings until the streak was broke on October 25, 2003 with a 4-4 tie in Schenectady, NY… the last time the Engineers lost at Achilles was on October 30, 2004 in a 4-1 decision… RPI is 11-2-4 when playing on the Dutchwomen's home ice.
 
RECENTLY
Over the last five seasons, the Engineers have held an 8-1-2 advantage… the Dutchwomen's last win came on October 20, 2012 with a 3-2 victory at Houston Field House… Union's Christine Valentine scored the game-winner with less than five minutes remaining in regulation while Courtney Turner scored a game high three points on two power play goals and an assist… RPI's Eleeza Cox and Alexa Gruschow '16 had a goal apiece with Jenn Godin '16 and Katie Daniels '13 registered assists… since the 3-2 decision in 2012, the Engineers are unbeaten.
 
SCOUTING THE DUTCHWOMEN
Union is led by sophomore Katelynn Russ (11 goals, six assists) with 17 points while sophomore Cheyenne Harris (four goals, 12 assists, 16 points) leads the squad in assists… Russ ranks in goals (9th ECACH)  and points (20th ECACH)... Harris ranks 18th in the ECACH in assists… rounding out the top point getters for the Dutchwomen are defensemen Arianna Kosakowski (five goals,11 assists) with 16 points and Caitlyn McLaren (four goals, 11 assists) with 15 points… Kosakowski and McLaren are top in the conference among defensemen scoring ranking 5th and 7th, respectively… McLaren has also been key on power plays registering eight points on two goals and six assists (10th ECACH)… freshman Hannah Schultz leads Union in power play goals with three on the year (8th ECACH)… freshman Helen Markovic paces Union rookies with ten points on three goals and seven assists, 8th among freshman scoring in the ECACH… sophomore Rachel de Perio leads in penalty minutes with 24 while sophomore Haley Shugart, who is 17th in the ECACH in goals (nine), has the best +/- margin with +1 on the season… the Dutchwomen are one of the most effective teams in the country on power plays with a 19.3 percentage (12th NCAA-DI, 4th ECACH).
 
BETWEEN THE PIPES
Coco Francis is the leading goaltender with 20 appearances and a 5-10-2 record… the freshman has a 2.91 goal against average while registering a .921 save percentage (7th ECACH).
 
2016-17 VS. UNION
In the first meeting of the weekend series last season, the two sides tied 2-2 in Schenectady… after two scoreless periods, RPI went up 2-0 on goals from Grigsby and Tomlinson assisted by Makenna Thomas, Hannah Behounek '17, Blake Orosz and Laura Horwood '17… Union responded with back-to-back goals from Emily Erickson and Russ to ensure the 2-2 tie… the following day, the Engineers posted a 2-1 win at Houston Field House… Thomas broke the scoreless stalemate less than three minutes into the third period… Horwood added the insurance goal 11 minutes later off assists from Orosz and Kendra Farole… the Dutchwomen broke through the Rensselaer defense with less than two minutes left in regulation with a goal from Haley Shugart, but the Engineers held on for the win… Selander recorded 53 saves on the 1-01 weekend while Kate Spooner combined for 67 saves of her own.
 
SPECIAL TEAMS
Grigsby leads the Engineers in power play points with seven on five goals and two assists which is tied for 15th in the ECACH… the junior's five power play goals are 8th in NCAA-DI and 2nd in the ECACH with Boston College's Daryl Watts (eight) leading the country and Clarkson's Michaela Pejzlova (six) pacing the conference... Hansen is second on the squad in power play goals with three on the year (8th ECACH)… on the other end, RPI has an 88.7% kill percentage, 8th in the country and 5th in the ECACH.
 
CLUTCH DEFENSE
The RPI defense, led by Hansen and Burnett, is one of the highest scoring defenses in the country (19th NCAA-DI, ECACH), averaging 2.25 goals per game… on the other end of the ice, the Engineers are 5th in the conference in goals against average (2.25)… Renn, senior Amanda Kimmerle and Hansen lead Rensselaer in blocked shots with 61, 55, and 52 respectively… Renn recorded a season high eight blocks in the 3-3 overtime draw to Dartmouth on January 6, 2018.
 
ON THE DRAW
Tomlinson leads RPI in faceoffs having won 57.6% of the time, with Repaci winning 47.6% of dropped pucks… as a team, the Engineers have won just over half of their faceoffs with a 50.1% total.
 
MAYOR'S CUP
This is the first time the women will be included in the Capital District Mayor's Cup… this will be the sixth year of the annual neutral site event held at the Times Union Center in Albany… while the men's game does not go towards conference standings, the women's game will count as an ECACH contest… if the women's game ends in a tie after four periods, an unofficial shootout of three players on each side will determine the winner of the Inaugural Mayor's Cup.
 
CLIMBING THE RECORD BOOK
With Tomlinson's two assist game against #3 Clarkson, Tomlinson recorded her 43rd career assist against to pass Sierra Vadner '12 and Katie Woodward '04 into 18th in program history… Tomlinson needs nine more assists to break into the RPI top ten.