Moon Township, Pa. - Freshman Thea Imbrogno (Etobicoke, Ontario / Mississauga Jr. Chiefs) of the Robert Morris University women's hockey team was recently named the College Hockey America (CHA) Rookie of the Month for the second time this season.
This honor is the eighth in-season recognition for Imbrogno, a single-season program record for the Colonials. The rookie had already claimed six weekly CHA awards, also a single-season school record, including three consecutive honors during February as she helped the Colonials to their longest unbeaten streak in program history.
This most recent acknowledgement of Imbrogno's strong performance follows the highest-scoring month of her young career. She recorded at least one point in every game of the month and concluded February on a program-record, nine-game point streak. Imbrogno also tallied a multi-point game against each one of RMU's opponents in February.
On its first weekend of play this month, Imbrogno was a key factor as Robert Morris rallied from two goals down in the final 10 minutes of regulation to secure a point against Niagara--she assisted on the initial goal before scoring the game-tying tally herself with just 87 seconds remaining. Imbrogno produced a similar feat in her next game, Feb. 11, by recording two points in fewer than nine minutes to break a 2-2 deadlock and give RMU a two-goal lead.
During the third weekend of the month, Feb. 19, Imbrogno scored both RMU goals, including the game-tying score in the third period, to help Robert Morris fight back for a tie against Syracuse. It marked Imbrogno's first-career multi-goal game and came as she broke the Colonial program record for single-game shots with 11. This past Friday, Imbrogno registered two more points at No. 3/T3 Mercyhurst, marking her fourth multi-point effort in her past six games and moving her to seventh nationally in points per game for rookies.
Imbrogno led RMU in most offensive categories for the month of February, topping the team in goals (5), assists (6), points (11) and shots (34). She has also has raised her performance during CHA competition this season as she has posted team-leading marks of 10 goals, 10 assists, 20 points and 72 shots in conference play.
Despite being just a freshman, Imbrogno has already started to rewrite the Robert Morris record book. She is currently among the top 10 in points (28, T-fourth), goals (12, seventh), assists (16, T-third) and shots (119, first) in Colonial single-season history. The 28 points place Imbrogno second in RMU history in single-season points by a freshman as she trails only current junior Brianna Delaney's (Stittsville, Ontario / NCCP Raiders) total.
Robert Morris has earned the fourth seed for the upcoming CHA Tournament and will battle fifth-seeded Wayne State in the first round, Thursday, March 3. The game, which will be played at tournament host Syracuse, will commence at 3:00 p.m.
