PITTSBURGH, Pa. - The Robert Morris University women's hockey team suffered its second straight loss Saturday afternoon at Clearview Arena, falling 4-1 to Penn State.
The loss moves RMU to 4-2 overall on the season.
Another quick first kicked things off between the Colonials and Nittany Lions as both went end-to-end with hardly a whistle in the first ten minutes.
Despite a solid defensive effort from the Colonials to keep Penn State on the perimeter, they managed to strike first at the 8:13 mark after Maeve Connolly cut through the slot and fired a perfectly-placed wrister that beat Arielle DeSmet low-blocker side.
A late power play for RMU looked promising but a few big saves from Josie Bothun as well as some excellent coverage in the slot from Penn State prevented RMU from cashing in on the opportunity.
They doubled the lead just 33 seconds into these second after a questionable call to wave off icing set up an offensive zone draw for PSU.
Kiara Zannon managed to win the ensuing face-off back to Jessica Adolfsson who belted a point shot that sailed over the shoulder of DeSmet to make it 2-0.
After going 0-6 to start the weekend, the player advantage finally came through for RMU after Wasyn Rice collected a rebound off an Emily Harley point shot to get the Colonials on the board.
The momentum was short-lived unfortunately, as another PPG from the Nittany Lions on a 5-on-3 restored the two-goal cushion.
Despite a final push from the Colonials, the Nittany Lions tacked on an empty netter for good measure in the final seconds of the game to ice it away and complete the sweep of RMU.
SCORING PLAYS
Connolly, 8:13, 1st - Assists: Ciarrocchi, Byrnes
Adolfsson, 00:33, 2nd - Assists: Zanon, Uihlein
Rice, 2:22, 2nd - Assists: Harley
Adolfsson, 10:05, 2nd - Assists: Heminger
Zanon, 19:34, 3rd (EN) - Unassisted
QUICK HITS
RMU drops two straight for first time this season…DeSmet made her third start in goal on the year for RMU…Wasyn Rice scored the lone goal for the Colonials…Each power play finished 1-5 on the day
QUOTEABLES
"I think one of the positives from our weekend was we really got exposed, we got exposed on a lot of things we need to work on. We got exposed in areas we needed to see to get better, and I think we'll learn from that and start applying a few things we learned in practice this week." - Head Coach Paul Colontino
NEXT UP
The Colonials take on defending CHA Champs Mercyhurst in a home-and-home series Friday night in Erie at 4:00 p.m and Saturday at Clearview at 2:05 p.m.
