TROY, N.Y. - Nina Caprio and Abby Peterson both had a goal and an assist and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) field hockey team held a 3-0 lead before going on to defeat Russell Sage College 4-1 in a non-league contest at Harkness Field. The win is the first in six games for the Engineers, while the Gators drop to 1-3.

Peterson put the Engineers in front when she collected a penalty corner insertion from Caprio and fired a shot off the goalkeeper that found its way into the back of the cage. The goal, Peterson's second of the season, came with 12 seconds left in the first quarter and on RPI's eighth corner of the frame.

Two second quarter goals made it 3-0 at halftime. Rensselaer's second tally came from Caprio after she picked up a loose ball off a Peterson shot that was blocked at the 4:05 mark. Ten minutes later, Lauren McCarthy made it a three-goal advantage when she swept a rebound of a Ria Patel shot into the cage from goalkeeper Jaia Caron's left. Patel's initial shot came from the middle of the arc following a defensive save by Eve Tonks.

Russell Sage got on the board with just under five minutes left in the third quarter when graduate student Sara O'Connor won a stalemate in the arc and got a shot on goal from close range. RPI goalkeeper Tess Garchinsky made the initial save, but O'Connor followed it up with a tally.

Patel set up Rensselaer's fourth goal with eight minutes to play in regulation when she drove down the right to the goal line, cut toward the goal, and sent a pass to Julie Thomas, whose tapped the ball into the cage.

Garchinsky finished with four saves, while Caron had 15 on the other end. The Engineers held the advantage in both penalty corners (14-10) and shots (26-9).