Women's Hockey | 10/3/2017 2:23:00 PM
PITTSBURGH -- This week's USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine Women's College Hockey Poll, released Tuesday, has kept the
Robert Morris women's hockey team at No. 9 in advance of its 2017-18 season opener in Mankato Saturday. The Colonials have earned back-to-back No. 9 rankings since entering the publications' preseason poll at No. 10 on Sept. 19.
The poll is conducted each week in conjunction with the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA), collecting input from coaches and journalists representing each of the four D-I hockey conferences, plus composite votes from officers of the AHCA and USA Hockey.
Robert Morris, having celebrated its first preseason top-ten rankings in program history this year, has cracked each of the last 16 USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine top-tens. The Colonials, coming off their first-ever College Hockey America regular-season championship and second CHA Tournament title in history, followed by their first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance, have climbed as high as No. 7 (weeks of Jan. 10, 17) during that stretch and finished the 2016-17 campaign at No. 8.
Paul Colontino, honored this past season as the CHA Coach of the Year, guided the program to its first-ever spot in the national polls during the 2013-14 campaign. He will be back behind the RMU bench for a seventh season to lead a squad that returns its top seven scorers from last year's run to the national quarterfinals, having signed a four-year extension Aug. 24.
Robert Morris defeated Ryerson, a member of Canada's Ontario University Athletics conference, 4-1 in its lone preseason game Sept. 23 at the RMU Island Sports Center, behind two goals from one of those returnees,
Brittany Howard. The redshirt senior forward, Buffalo Beauts (NWHL) draftee and reigning CHA Player of the Year led RMU with 50 points (20 goals, 30 assists) in 2016-17, and, with 132 career points (54 G, 78 A), needs just three more to become the program's all-time points leader.
The Colonials open their '17-'18 regular slate with ten road games in a row, including Saturday's 2:00 p.m. contest at Minnesota State and the rematch Sunday at noon. Robert Morris returns to Colonials Arena for a pair of CHA matchups against RIT Nov. 10-11.
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