NEVILLE TOWNSHIP– The Robert Morris women’s hockey team is officially back! The Colonials finally took the ice at Clearview Arena for the first time in 952 days.
However, after a 6-1 dominant display it made it seem like the program never left.
Since the program was cut in May 2021, the university and the Pittsburgh community have been itching for college hockey to return to the area. That was clear from the atmosphere brought to the Island Sports Center Saturday afternoon.
“It’s special. Game days here are a special thing,” Head Coach Logan Bittle said. “I’ve been doing it for a long time. 15-some-odd years, probably. It’s been a long time, but it’s a really, really exciting time to be able to come back and play in front of the fans, and a lot of hard work went into it by a lot of people to make this day happen.”
“It was so much fun and an emotional day. I’ll probably go and sit in my office and cry about it myself. I don’t want anybody to see it, but it’s a special place, and it was a special day today for sure.”
As for the game, the electricity instantly transferred from the crowd to the ice. Mya Neugent scored the first home goal 74 seconds into the program’s rebirth.
“It was definitely different than what I’m used to,” freshman forward Janelle Evans said. “So, it was pretty nerve-wracking at first, but I think once the team got into it, and we got in the swing of things, it was super exciting, and just feeding off the crowd’s energy really helped us.”
Madison Primeau got goal number one on her season, which allowed the Colonials to double the Hawks up.
Saint Anselm’s Maddy McCaffery scored on the power play to cut the Colonials lead in half midway through the second frame. The Colonials committed five penalties on the day with McCaffery’s goal being the only one to find the back of the net during the man-up.
“We gotta reign it in a little bit but I do like the intensity,” Coach Bittle said. “We need that. We need that finish of plays between the whistles. We had a couple of penalties that we talked about that we could avoid, but I liked [the intensity]. We need that fight. We need that mentality.”
The third period was utter domination for the Colonials. RMU had 22 shots in the period, along with four goals.
Kaitlyn Schooley scored her first career goal with her parents in attendance. She is the daughter of the Colonials men’s hockey coach, Derek Schooley.
Three minutes later, another freshman scored, this time Janelle Evans scored to make it 4-1.
“I think we really battled through adversity in the first two periods,” Evans said. “I think we stuck with the game and even though it was a 6-1 win, it wasn’t like that in the whole game. So I think we really battled hard, and we really found ourselves in the third period to be able to put up that many goals.”
Morgan Giannone also had a three-point game and capped it off with the Colonials’ third goal in about seven minutes.
With less than a minute to go, Alaina Giampietro fired one right off the faceoff to finish off the game.
“It’s a moment that I’ll forever remember,” Giampietro said. “I can’t wait to do it again and again and again with these girls. I think the work that everyone’s put into bringing this program back and helping us, all the people that have been here today doing the work and supporting us.”
The Colonials will look to continue the domination as they face Saint Anslem again tomorrow at noon at the Clearview Arena.
