Women's Hockey | 11/8/2018 11:50:00 PM

PITTSBURGH -- The Robert Morris women's hockey team welcomes the No. 10 Raiders of Colgate University to the RMU Island Sports Center Friday and Saturday for the first time since the 2014-15 season. The opening faceoffs from the RMU Island Sports Center are scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET Friday and 3:05 p.m. Saturday.

A free, continuous shuttle will run between Lexington and Concord Halls and the front doors of the Island Sports Center 6:00-10:00 p.m. Friday.

Fans can call 412-397-4949 or visit the ISC front desk for ticket information. Both games can also be seen live on the CHA Digital Network (subscription required).

Fans can also sign up for the Clearview Federal Credit Union "Penalty Box Trivia Challenge" in the ISC lobby for a chance to win $50.

Robert Morris (6-5-1, 4-1-1) vs. #10/10 Colgate (6-4-0, 3-1-0) - Nov. 9-10
Fri., Nov. 9 (7:05 p.m.) - LIVE STREAM ($) | LIVE STATS
Sat., Nov. 10 (3:05 p.m.) - LIVE STREAM ($) | LIVE STATS 

This is the first of four series in a row that Robert Morris will play at Colonials Arena, its longest homestand of the 2018-19 season. That Oct. 10-11, 2014 series with the Raiders ended in a split, capped by a 2-1 RMU victory, the team's last win in the all-time series (2-4-1).

The Colonials pushed their unbeaten streak to five (4-0-1) with a sweep of College Hockey America rival RIT, 3-1 and 3-0, Nov. 2-3 in Rochester, New York. It was their first series sweep and first series-opening win of 2018-19.

RMU has earned points in ten of its last 14 games against teams from the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (7-4-3), including a 3-3 tie at No. 4 Colgate Dec. 9, 2017. Natalie Fraser's goal with 5:46 left forced overtime.

Key Notes

• That Dec. 2017 contest, the last meeting between these teams, saw Lexi Templeman open the scoring on a Robert Morris power play. Jaycee Gebhard added a short-handed breakaway goal. It would be the only tie of 2017-18 for Colgate, which reached the NCAA title game before falling in OT to Clarkson.

• Jaycee Gebhard extended her goal-scoring streak to five games, marking the longest such streak of her career, in RMU's weekend sweep at RIT. Her CHA-best third game-winning goal led to Saturday's victory. Gebhard took over the CHA overall scoring lead with 15 points and took sole possession of seventh place in the NCAA points race entering Friday.

• Furthermore, Gebhard has maintained the overall Division I lead with her 161 faceoff wins. Her .567 faceoff win percentage ranks fifth in CHA entering Friday. RMU comes in with the most faceoff wins in Division I (383).

• Lexi Templeman has registered six points (PPG, 5 A) during her ongoing four-game point streak. She factored into all three RMU goals last Friday, and she has moved into a three-way tie for the CHA lead with her eight assists.

• Lauren Bailey won her second straight CHA Goalie of the Week award with her GAA of 0.50 and .977 save percentage Nov. 2-3. Her season-high 26 saves Nov. 3 were good for a second shutout in her last three starts. Bailey has allowed three even-strength goals in her past seven outings and no goals at all in her last 140:46. Her 1.91 GAA now leads the conference.

• Maggie LaGue scored an empty-netter with :03 left last Saturday, the first short-handed goal by RMU since its team record-tying eight in 2017-18 and her first career shorty. Her last two goals have come at the Polisseni Center.

• Kirsten Welsh got her CHA-leading third power play goal last Friday to tie the game 1-1. Her four total goals make her the co-leader among NCAA D-men. Dating back to the 2016-17 season, Robert Morris is unbeaten in 24 of the past 28 games in which Welsh has recorded at least one point.

• Robert Morris first defeated the Raiders Nov. 22, 2011, a 5-2 triumph in Hamilton, New York. The Colonials prevailed by scoring four power-play goals in a game for just the sixth time in program history, one shy of matching the single-game record the team had just set at Lindenwood Nov. 13, 2011.

Resume Builder
• Robert Morris sits No. 23 in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) and No. 24 in the PairWise rankings that affect NCAA Tournament seeding. Six of its eight remaining non-conference games are against teams that finished 2017-18 top ten in the Division I polls.

Chasing History
• October CHA Player of the Month Jaycee Gebhard needs only one more point to become the fifth Robert Morris player to amass 100 for her career. Brittany Howard '18 (181); Rebecca Vint '15 (134); Thea Imbrogno '14 (122) and Brianna Delaney '12 (121) round out that group. With 43 goals, Gebhard needs one more to take sixth on the all-time chart from Kristen Miles '09.
• Gebhard and Amber Rennie tied Megan Picinic '09 for fourth in Colonials history with eight career game-winning goals after each got one at RIT Nov. 2-3. Each needs one more GW to match Brianna Delaney for third in RMU lore.
• Kirsten Welsh, already the RMU leader in career goals by a defender (32), tied Delaney for fourth in career power play tallies with her 17th all-time during the second period at RIT Nov. 2.

Iron Sharpens Iron
• With its series at No. 1 Clarkson, RMU has now faced a top-ranked team in 17 games all-time. The Oct. 5-6 series was the first time it had done so in the regular season since hosting Wisconsin Nov. 19-20, 2010. The last time the Colonials had met No. 1, prior to 2018-19, was also against the Badgers, in their first-ever NCAA Quarterfinal game on Mar. 11, 2017. This fall semester at Robert Morris will mark the first time in program history the Colonials will have faced the reigning national champ, national runner-up and one of last season's D-I quarterfinalists (Minnesota, Dec. 7-8) all in the same regular season.

They Are "Soph"
• Emily Curlett matched her career high with six blocked shots versus St. Lawrence Sept. 29 and registered five in home games against RPI (Oct. 12) and Lindenwood (Oct. 26). Curlett led CHA defenders in 2017-18 with 70 blocks and leads D-I with 42 after finishing second as a rookie.
• Lexi Templeman finished the 2017-18 season with a .559 faceoff win rate that ended up third among CHA rookies. Templeman, after going 11-6 from the dot at RIT Nov. 2-3, has overtaken the Tigers' Brittney Gout for the CHA lead (.675) and ranks fifth in the NCAA. Her .800 faceoff win percentage in home games is tops in Division I.

You Feel Shame For Two Minutes, And Then You Get Free
• Robert Morris went 6-for-7 on the penalty kill in last weekend's series at RIT. In three non-conference series, RMU has gone 89.5% on the PK, the best out-of-conference success rate in College Hockey America. The Colonials are 90% flat in home games, which puts them second in CHA.

In Our Defense...
• Last season, the Colonials amassed 102 total points from their defensive corps, ultimately tying them with national champion Clarkson as the highest-scoring unit in Division I. Entering Friday, the 2018-19 squad has totaled 16 points (6 G, 10 A) from its defense, including seven (3 G, 4 A) on the power play. That unit has taken 125 total shots on goal this season, the most of any D-corps in the nation.

Toppling The Top Ten?
• The Colonials last defeated a nationally ranked opponent Nov. 25, 2017, a 3-2 overtime upset of consensus No. 5 Ohio State at the RMU Island Sports Center. Lexi Templeman scored the first RMU goal, and current tri-captains Amber Rennie and Maggie LaGue each recorded two assists, with both players figuring in on Brittany Howard's sudden-victory score with 3:24 left in OT. Their previous top-ten win at No. 10 Quinnipiac Jan. 18, 2014 is the last time they beat a nationally-ranked team from the ECAC.

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