The Colgate women's hockey team will close out the regular season at home this weekend when they host ECAC opponents Union and Rensselaer. The Raiders will take on the Dutchwomen on Friday, Feb. 19 at 7 p.m. followed by the Engineers on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 4 p.m.

 

Union – The Dutchwomen currently sport an overall record of 5-26-1 with a 1-18-1 mark in the league. Union has lost its last eight ECAC games with its last win coming back on Jan. 16, a 3-0 victory against Brown. The squad dropped two league games last weekend with a 4-0 loss to Dartmouth followed by a 2-1 defeat by Harvard. Three players lead the Union offense with eight points apiece. Molly Kate Devin has three goals and five assists, while Marissa Gentile and Lauren Hoffman each have two goals and are tied for a team-high six assists. Emilie Arseneault leads the team in goal scoring with five goals to go with two assists for seven points. Lauren Cromartie and Rhianna Kurio also have seven points for the Dutchwomen. Freshman Alana Marcinko and sophomore Kate Gallagher have each spent time between the posts this season. Marcinko is 3-10-1 overall with a .911 save percentage and 3.01 goals against average. Gallagher is 2-6-0 with a .904 save percentage and 3.13 goals against average. Head coach Claudia Asano is in her third season at the helm of the Union women's ice hockey program.

Rensselaer – The Engineers hold an 11-5-4 record in ECAC play and a 14-11-6 overall record. They are currently tied for third in the league with 26 points alongside Harvard. Cornell and Clarkson are the only two teams ahead of the Engineers in the standings with 30 points apiece. Rensselaer defeated both Harvard and Dartmouth last weekend, downing the Crimson, 3-2, in overtime followed by a 5-2 win against the Big Green. The Engineers have nine players in double-figures with Whitney Naslund and Allison Wright leading the way with 23 points apiece. Naslund leads the squad in goal scoring with 14 to go with nine assists while Wright has 11 goals and 12 assists. Lauren Gersten has a team-high 14 assists along with five goals for 19 points. Junior Sonja van der Blick is 13-11-5 in goal with a .922 save percentage and 1.90 goals against average. Head coach John Burke is in his first season at the helm of the Rensselaer women's hockey program.

 

 

Union – The Raiders hold a 20-0 advantage in their all-time series against the Dutchwomen, including a 4-0 win earlier this season. Four different players scored for Colgate in that game with Jessi Waters (Menlo Park, Calif.) and rookie Brittany Phillips (Lauder, Man.) each scoring in the first period, followed by Katie Stewart in the second with Jacquie Colborne (Calgary, Alta.) finishing the game with a goal at 17:50 in the third. Lisa Plenderleith made 12 stops in the game, while Union's Kate Gallagher made 34.

 

Rensselaer–  Colgate holds a slight lead in the all-time series, 6-5-5 but dropped a 10-4 meeting at Rensselaer earlier this season. The Engineers scored twice in the first period before Beth Rotenberg (Toronto, Ont.) was able to get the Raiders on the board in the opening minutes of the second period. Rensselaer responded with five consecutive goals for a 7-1 lead. Katie Stewart closed the period with a second goal for Colgate but the Engineers opened the third period with three more goals. The Raiders scored twice more in the final stanza with goals from Jessi Waters and Stewart but were unable to comeback from the six-goal deficit. Colgate's Kimberly Sass (East Amherst, N.Y.) made nine saves in just over 30 minutes of play while Lisa Plenderleith made 11 and rookie Jocelyn Yokow (Windsor, Conn.) had three.

Katie Stewart leads the Raiders, and is tied for second among scoring leaders in the ECAC, with 37 points off of 15 assists and a league-high 22 goals. Freshman Brittany Phillips in second in scoring for the Raiders with 20 points coming from 11 goals and nine assists while senior Evan Minnick adds 19 points from nine goals and 10 assists. Junior Jessi Waters has 14 assists along with two goals, while six other players have scored in the double-digits for Colgate.Goaltenders Lisa Plenderleith and Kimberly Sass have split time between the posts this season. Plenderleith holds 7-9-2 record to go with a .886 save percentage and 3.39 goals against average. Sass is 2-8-2 on the season with a .864 save percentage and 4.24 goals against average.

Katie Stewart was selected as this week's ECAC Player of the Week as chosen by the League's coaches. It is the first time this season that Stewart has received a weekly honor. Stewart scored all four goals in a 4-3 victory at Brown over the weekend. It marked her first career hat trick and the first time since 2006 that a Colgate player has tallied four goals in a single game. The senior currently leads the Raiders in scoring with 37 points coming from 22 goals and 15 assists and is ranked second in points in ECAC play with 23. She is also the top goal-scorer in the ECAC with 16 goals against league opponents. Stewart is averaging 1.21 points per game and 1.51 points in ECAC games. Her 37 points this season has moved her into sixth place on Colgate's all-time scoring list with a total of 97 points so far. Last weekend Stewart picked up her 50th career goal in a 4-3 win against Princeton.

The Raiders were selected to finish eighth in the ECAC Hockey Preseason Poll as chosen by conference coaches. The Raiders received a total of 52 votes, while top-choice St. Lawrence grabbed the No. 1 spot with 107 votes including three first place votes.

 

Head coach Scott Wiley is in his eighth season at the helm of the Raiders. Wiley led last year's team to a school record 19 wins, including an eight-game unbeaten streak in January. The 2003-04 ECAC Coach of the Year has high hopes for this year's team and will look to make this the eighth straight ECAC playoff appearance.