RMU Tops LIU in Teams' Conference Opener

from press release

On Friday afternoon the Robert Morris University Colonials took down the  Long Island Blackbirds, 15-8, in both team's conference opener at Joe Walton Stadium. Sophomore Courtney Sicinski (Downingtown, Pa. / Downingtown West) opened up the contest with two quick goals and the Colonials led for the remainder of play to record the win.
The win evens RMU's overall record to 3-3 and moves them to 1-0 in NEC play, while Long Island drops to 1-6 overall and 0-1 in league play.

Sicinski led the contest with four goals and one assist, while sophomore Colleen O'Donnell (Portland, Ore. / St. Mary's Academy) and senior Ali Gibbons (Candia, N.H. / Machester) each added a tri of goals. O'Donnell also contributed one helper for a four point performance, freshman Tara Southworth (Westminster, Md. / Westminster High) finished the contest with a pair of goals and assists and junior Ashley Trombetta (Sykesville, Md. / Century) led the game with three assists and added one goal for four points.

At just 1:02 into the contest Trombetta set Sicinski up for the opening goal and 20 seconds later the duo went to work again with Trombetta assisting on Sicinski's second consecutive goal. The blackbirds held off the RMU attack for the next six minutes, but Trombetta aggressively went to the net at 7:29 and scored an unassisted goal. O'Donnell put RMU up 4-0 when she captured the games first free position goal at 9:13 in the first half.

Long Island was finally able to gain possession of the ball and Caitlin Farrell got the Blackbirds on the scoreboard off an assist from Sara Lanoir at 10:07 to set the score at 4-1. RMU responded immediately and Southworth tallied back-to-back assists on goals by Gibbons and O'Donnell at 11:35 and 16:29, which was then followed with a goal by LIU's Jenna Schauder. In the final five minutes of play, the Colonials scored two more times with the Blackbirds closing out the half with a goal by Annie Kalata with 2:07 left to play. The Colonials finished the first frame with an 8-3 advantage.

The Colonials started the second half in similar fashion to the first scoring the first four goals to gain their biggest lead of the contest at 12-3. The Blackbirds tried to fight back and Claire Ranney stepped up for LIU and scored back-to-back goals within three minutes of each other to cut the lead to seven. Both the Colonials and the Blackbirds scored three more times before the end of regulation giving RMU a 15-8 victory.

Long Island went three-for-five on free position shots, while RMU was successful on two-of-four opportunities. Robert Morris gained a huge advantage with ground balls by tallying 19 to LIU's 11.

RMU finished the contest with 13 saves with senior Erica Webb (Arnold, Md. / Broadneck) making nine stops and sophomore Jennifer Schulze (Bel Air, Md. / C. Milton Wright) adding seven. The Long Island duo of Jacqueline Simonian and Amber Meek made seven saves.

The Colonials return to action on Sunday, March 21 to take on conference foe Wagner at 1:00 p.m.