PITTSBURGH -- A successful homecoming for the No. 9 Robert Morris women's hockey team turned out to be particularly memorable for one player raised on the very program by which she was recruited.

Pittsburgh native Anjelica Diffendal scored her first NCAA goal to spark the Colonials (9-1-2, 4-0-2) to a 5-2 victory and series sweep of RIT (4-7-1, 1-3-0) in College Hockey America (CHA) play at the RMU Island Sports Center Saturday.

"It's an amazing feeling, being able to do it in front of my family and friends, on home ice," Diffendal said, beaming, after the win, the team's fourth in a row. "I grew up watching [Robert Morris] play, so it's just a great feeling."

With not quite nine minutes expired in the first period, Emilie Harley took a turnover straight to the net and fired a puck off Tigers goaltender Terra Lanteigne that Diffendal, ahead of the play, alertly snapped in for a 1-0 Colonials lead.

Harley, for that matter, picked up her first collegiate assist on the play.

"She's worked hard, and she's been battling through the ups and downs of being a freshman, earning her ice time and earning her spot. Adjusting to this level isn't easy, going from U-19s to college," head coach Paul Colontino said of the Pens Elite product. "It was very fitting to see her drive that net, with that long, hard stride, and get a nice goal to really get us going."

RIT showed plenty of fight, getting a pair of skillful second-period goals from Claudia Black, who also hit the crossbar on a first-period breakaway, to stay alive. RMU, however, followed Friday's script of pouring it on Lanteigne and eventually reaping what it had sown to extend its unbeaten streak to eight games (6-0-2).

Top-line center Brittany Howard racked up her 13th and 14th goals of the season to take the outright Division I lead, with the latter coming off a fabulous special-teams effort and holding up as the defending CHA scoring champion's third game-winner of the year.

The Colonials, who finished a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill, were pressing when shorthanded all day and finally got rewarded with 6:51 left in the second. As a Robert Morris penalty was in its waning seconds, Amber Rennie threw a puck off the near boards for which Howard won the race. She flew to the net, deked left and flipped a backhander under the bar for a 3-1 advantage.

It trumped a first-period tally that saw Howard fetch her own rebound in the corner, camp out in the left-wing circle and put a seeing-eye puck through a sea of bodies.

"The most impressive thing is how well we've worked together, and the chemistry that's been built," Diffendal said. "The skill level out there is amazing."

Rennie would close the scoring with seven-and-a-half minutes left in regulation by mirroring Diffendal's watershed moment, beating Lanteigne off a rebound from virtually the same spot to prolong a streak of six straight wins over the Tigers.

Robert Morris, the defending CHA champion and current front-runner, has turned the tide in the all-time series, which it now leads 15-10-3.

"Every point, toward the end of the season, becomes so valuable. When you're in conference, the early [games], toward the end of the year, are sometimes the biggest rewards, because the race is always tight coming to the end," Colontino said. "It's great to be at home, great to get four points and, again, I thought we got scoring from a lot of different places, and that's just a great thing to see."

Sarah Lecavalier continued to provide such balance, and also provided insurance, with a late deflection, between the circles, of an Emily Curlett slap shot. The former's fourth goal of the season matched her total from her rookie year with the now-defunct North Dakota program.

Now RMU gets some hard-earned rest--ironically, at a time when it might not want to stop playing, and when not too many other teams want to play the Colonials. A bye week precedes a visit from No. 5/6 Ohio State to Neville Island Nov. 24-25, and a golden opportunity for Robert Morris to improve its chances of a second straight NCAA Tournament berth against a formidable non-conference opponent.

"The schedule is the schedule," Colontino said. "Our focus is, whether we're playing or not playing, to get better every week."

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