Women's hockey will play Syracuse in a home-and-home series

ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT women's hockey team will play a weekend series against Atlantic Hockey America foe Syracuse this weekend. The Tigers host the Dutch on Friday (January 24) at 3:00 PM and travel to Syracuse on Saturday (January 25) for a showdown at 3:00 PM.

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Weekend overview (RIT at Robert Morris)

RIT shared a pair of Atlantic Hockey America games at Robert Morris last weekend. The Tigers won 2-0 on Friday, followed by a 5-4 overtime loss on Saturday.

Senior goalkeeper Sara Coe made 22 saves in Friday's win. It is her third shutout of the season and fourth of her career. First year ahead Kailey Favro scored a goal and an assist while being a sophomore forward Addie Alvarez provided two assists. First year ahead Brac Kelley scored a goal and senior forward Kylie Aquarohad an assist.

Sophomore forward Linda Rolle tied the game 38 seconds into the second period and senior forward Bronwyn Khangsar gave the Tigers a 2-1 lead on her goal at 5:11 of the second period. Graduate student moving forward Nicole Ness gave the Tigers a 3-2 lead late in the second period and senior defenseman Kyla Bear extended RIT's lead to 4-2 on her goal 27 seconds into the third period. Robert Morris tied the game at 4–4 with 3:07 remaining in regulation time and won the match with 4:30 left in overtime. Coe finished with 24 saves.

Where They Stand (AHA)

RIT is fourth in the AHA standings with 16 points. The Tigers are one point behind third-place Syracuse and six points ahead of fifth-place Robert Morris.

Power (playback) increase

RIT is 8 of 24 (33.3%) on the power play in the last six games. The Tigers went a combined 5-for-10 in two games at Post (Jan. 3-4), 2-for-4 at Penn State (Jan. 11) and 1-for-4 at Robert Morris (Jan. 17).

Within the numbers

RIT is 6-1 with four goals this season and 3-0 with five or more goals. The Tigers are 8-2-2 in fewer than three goals and 6-3-1 in losses. RIT is 10-3-2 in outscoring its opponents and 6-1-1 in scoring the first goal.

Among All-Time Netminders

Senior goalkeeper Sara Coe enters the weekend second all-time in career saves (2,473) and minutes played (4,4607) and is tied for second place with 82 games played. Junior goalkeeper Sophia Bellina ranks eighth all-time with a .928 save percentage and saves (914) and 11 hours in games played (38), minutes played (1,910) and a career average of 2.23 goals against.

Top 100 scorers

Four Tigers are in the top 100 all-time high scores. Aquaro ranks 28th all-time in scoring with 73 points (23g, 50a). Alvarez is in 60th place with 46 points (14g, 32a) and Kyla Bear is 63rd with 44 points (8g, 36a). Senior forward Athena Vasdani is 74th with 39 points (16g, 23a).

Career milestones

Senior defender Bailey Kehl is three blocks away from 170 for her career and Vasdani (16g, 23a, 39p) is one point away from 40. Kyla Bear (7g, 36a) is one point away from 45 for her career, while Alvarez is four points away from 50. Aquaro (23g, 48a) is two goals away from 25 and two points away from 75 for her career. Graduate student defense woman Mia Tsilemos blocked her 260th shot against Robert Morris last weekend.

Century Mark

Ten Tigers have exceeded the plateau of 100 games played. Tsilemos (139), Ness (134), senior forward Megan McCormick (126), Vasdani (125), Kyla Bear (123), Kehl and senior defender Jessie Burks (121), Aquaro (119), senior defender Addie Carr (102) and senior forward Jordyn Bear (101).

About RIT

RIT enters the weekend averaging 2.7 goals per game and allowing 2.6 goals per game. The Tigers are 25-for-93 (26.9%) on the power play and 68-for-84 (80.9%) on penalty kill. RIT wins 48.2% of its faceoffs and has blocked 397 shots.

Six Tigers have recorded at least 10 points in 26 games, while Alvarez had 26 points, including a team-high 20 assists. Aquaro is second with 24 points (8g, 16a) and Kelley is third with 17 points (8g, 9a).

Sophomore forward Emma Pickering is fourth with 16 points, including nine goals for the team. Favro (7g, 7a) and Kyla Bear (2g, 12a) are tied for fifth with 14 points each.

Tsilemos leads the team with 51 blocked shots, Pickering is second with 48 and Bear is third with 46.

Coe is 7-7-1 with a 2.44 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage, while Bellina is 4-3-2 with a 2.41 GAA and a .914 save percentage.

AHA Rankings

RIT leads Atlantic Hockey America in power play percentage (26.9%) and penalty kill percentage (82.9%). The Tigers rank second in goals per game (2.73) and third in points per game (6.96), assists (110), goals allowed per game (2.58) and blocked shots per game (15.27 ).

Alvarez ranks second in Atlantic Hockey America in points (26), points per game (1.04), assists (20) and assists per game (0.80). Aquaro ranks fifth in the league in points (24) and fourth in power play goals (4). She ranks sixth in the league in points per game (0.92), assists (16) and assists per game (0.62).

Pickering is tied for sixth in the league in goals (9) and first with six power play counts. The second-year defender is seventh with 48 blocks. Kyla Bear is eighth in the AHA in assists (12) and tied for eighth in blocked shots (46), while Kelley is sixth winning 55.1% of her faceoffs and seventh with 193 faceoff wins.

Jordan Bear is eighth in the league with 181 faceoff wins, while Tsilemos is fifth with 51 blocked shots. Senior forward Megan McCormick is 11th and wins 49.3 percent of her confrontations.

Bellina ranks fourth in Atlantic Hockey America with a 2.41 goals-against average and seventh with a .914 save percentage. Coe is fifth in the league with a GAA of 2.44 and sixth with a save percentage of .916.

National rankings

RIT is tied for fourth in Division I with 25 power-play goals and sixth on 26.9 percent of its power-play opportunities. The Tigers rank ninth in goals scored (71), tied for 15th in scoring fouls (2.73) and 15th in team saves (665).

Alvarez ranks 13th nationally with an average of 0.80 assists per game and Pickering ranks second with six power-play goals.

About Syracuse

Syracuse enters this weekend with an overall record of 7-19-0 and is 5-7-0 in Atlantic Hockey America. The Dutch team is third in the AHA rankings with 17 points. Syracuse is 0-5-0 in their last five games, including a pair of losses to No. 8 Penn State last weekend. The Dutch lost 1-0 in extra time on Friday, followed by 4-0 the next day.

Graduate goalkeeper Allie Kelley made 41 saves in Friday's overtime loss and made 26 saves in Saturday's game.

Syracuse enters the weekend sixth in Atlantic Hockey America with an average of 1.81 goals per game and fourth with 2.88 goals per game. The Dutch are fourth in the league, converting 18.3 percent of their power play chances and fourth in converting 76.5 percent of their opponent's power play chances.

Graduate student moving forward Bryn Saarela leads Syracuse and is eighth in the league with 21 points. She is tied for third in the conference with 13 goals and tied for fourth with four power play goals. Sophomore forward Jackson Kinsler is second on the team with 14 points and tied with the junior defenseman Sami Gendron with nine assists. Defender of graduate students Charli Kettlel (6g, 5a) and graduate student forward Tatum White (4g, 7a) are tied for third with 11 points each.

Kelley ranks sixth in the AHA with a 2.89 goals-against average, fifth with a .923 save percentage and second with an average of 33.96 saves per game.

RIT vs. Syracuse

Syracuse is 35-14-4 all-time against RIT. The Tigers dropped a pair of games in November, losing 4-2 at Syracuse and 1-0 at RIT the next day. Aquaro and Favro each scored for RIT in Friday's loss while they were sophomore forwards Nea Tervonen scored the only goal for Syracuse in Saturday's win.

Ranked opponents

RIT will play four teams ranked in this week's USCHO Division I Women's Poll. The Tigers are 1-4-1 and split a pair of games against No. 6 Colgate (Oct. 11-12) and went 0-1-1 against No. 11 St. Lawrence (Oct. 25-26). The Tigers lost 5-2 at No. 7 Cornell (Nov. 26) and 5-1 (Dec. 31). RIT dropped a pair of games to No. 8 Penn State (Jan. 10-11), but hosted the Nittany Lions on Feb. 14-15 to close out the regular season.