RMU Women’s Hockey Voted Co-Favorite In College Hockey America

As the leaves start to turn colors across the hills of Pennsylvania, the first signs of fall herald the eagerly-awaited coming of another season of NCAA Division I hockey at the Robert Morris University Island Sports Center.

The RMU women’s hockey team brought all muskets to bear on Saturday night when they opened up their 2014-15 season with a 10-2 exhibition victory over the Bluewater Junior Hawks of the Provincial Women’s Hockey League.

RMU collected goals from eight different players, including two each from senior center Katie Fergus and sophomore left wing Maeve Garvey. The box score at the end of the evening showed that 14 of 19 Colonial skaters claimed at least one point in the contest.

One of the accolades from last week was that the ballots have been collected in College Hockey America’s preseason conference coaches’ poll and RMU was selected as the co-favorite in the CHA.

Robert Morris, in its 10th season as a program, earned three first-place votes, which is the highest number it has ever received in a preseason poll. It should be noted that no program can vote for itself.

The Mercyhurst University Lakers was tabbed as the co-favorite after gathering one first-place vote. Winning the face-off for the remaining two first-place votes, was the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Tigers, who were picked to finish third this season.

The Syracuse University Orange collected 13 points for a fourth place finish. Rounding out the final spots in the preseason coaches poll were the Penn State Nittany Lions with eight points and the Lindenwood University Lions with seven points.

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The Colonials, under the direction of fourth-year head coach Paul Colontino (58-32-10), finished the 2013-2014 campaign at 24-8-3 overall and 13-5-2 in the CHA, which placed them second in the conference standings behind Mercyhurst. RMU was ranked in the top 10 of both the United States College Hockey Online and the USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine polls for 13 consecutive weeks.

The voters in the USCHO poll did not forget about Robert Morris’ accomplishments from last season as the Colonials joined RIT and the Northeastern University Huskies in the “receiving votes” section of their preseason edition of the poll this week. The Colonials over the past two seasons, have gone 6-5-2 against nationally-ranked opponents.

Coach Colontino has brought in a group of five freshmen, three forwards and two defenseman, for the 2014-2015 campaign. The rest of the 23-player roster breaks down as follows: seven seniors, five juniors and seven sophomores. This season’s Blue and White squad has 13 forwards, eight defensemen and three goaltenders.

RMU will be led by senior center and captain Rebecca Vint, who had 24 goals, 17 assists for a total of 41 points last season. She also had four short-handed goals, six powerplay scores and seven game-winning goals. Vint enters her senior campaign ranked third in program history in career points with 118 behind Thea Imbrogno and Brianna Delaney.

The other six seniors helping to lead the squad this season include right wing Katelyn Scott, center Katie Fergus, left wing Maddie Collias, defensemen Kelsey Gunn and Erin Staniewski, and goaltender Courtney Vinet.

Head Coach Paul Colontino had this to say to RMUColonials.com about his senior leadership, “They’re the ones who have been through it in terms of on-ice stuff and the off-ice stuff. Whether it’s championships, playoffs, or just huge series, the leadership that you expect from the class as a whole is huge.”

Among the returning Colonials to watch this season include sophomore goaltender Jessica Dodds and sophomore forward Brittany Howard, who both earned All-CHA honors last season, as well as sophomore left wing Maeve Garvey.

Dodds was an All-CHA First Team selection, also earning the conference’s Rookie of the Year award, and led the way in wins with 21. Howard, an All-CHA Second Team honoree, broke the single-season program record for assists with 24 and tied Vint for the team lead in points with 41.

And, with eight goals and seven assists, for 15 points in 35 games-played, last season, keep an eye out for Garvey.

Some of the new Colonials to watch this season include freshmen right wings Amanda Pantaleo and Jessica Gazzola and freshman defenseman Natalie Fraser.

Robert Morris opens its regular season this weekend as the Colonials welcome Bemidji State to the banks of the Ohio River at the RMU Island Sports Center on Neville Island. The first contest with the Beavers is set for Friday, Sept. 26 at 7:05 p.m. with the rematch set for 3:05 p.m. on Saturday afternoon.