Team Notes: Raiders Host Yale and Brown in Final Home Weekend

HAMILTON, N.Y. – The Colgate women's hockey team will play its final two regular-season home games this weekend. The team will first play Yale on Friday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. before hosting Brown on Saturday, Feb. 12 at 4 p.m. in Starr Rink. The Brown game will be part of the National Girls and Women in Sports Day celebration and will also be the team's senior day in which the Raiders will honor their four seniors.

Colgate (9-17-3, 6-10-2 ECAC) is coming off a 4-2 setback to St. Lawrence and a 2-2 overtime tie with Clarkson last weekend. Sophomores Brittany Phillips and Jenna Klynstra as well as freshman Rachel Walsh all recorded two points apiece in the St. Lawrence game while sophomore Jessica Hootz and freshman Jocelyn Simpson scored a goal each against Clarkson. 

POINT LEADERS
Phillips leads the team with 30 points from 12 goals and 18 assists. She is followed by classmate Klynstra who has 12 goals and 12 assists for 24 points and by senior Jessi Waters who continues to sit at third with 18 points off two goals and 16 assists. 

ECAC HOCKEY PLAY
Colgate is currently sitting in tenth place in the league standings above Brown and Union with 14 points. The team has wins against Quinnipiac, Princeton, Clarkson, Rensselaer and Union and has suffered losses to Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard, Quinnipiac, St. Lawrence, Yale, Rensselaer and No. 2 Cornell. The Raiders' only ties were with Brown on Jan. 7 and Clarkson last weekend. 

Including this weekend's games, the team has only four games left in the season to secure a spot as one of the top-eight teams in the league and advance to the ECAC Hockey Playoffs that will take place at the end of this month. 

THE SERIES
Colgate leads the all-time series with the Bulldogs, owning a 9-7-3 record since the teams first met in the 2001-02 season. The Raiders have a 6-3 record at home against Yale, with their last home win coming in the 2008-09 season. The Bulldogs won the last meeting between the two teams on Jan. 8 in New Haven, Conn.

Brown leads the all-time series with the Raiders 9-8-2. Since the teams first met in the 2001-02 season, Colgate has played nine of the 18 games against the Bears in Starr Rink, owning a 5-4  record with its last home win coming in the 2009-10 season. The last meeting between the two teams ended in a 2-2 overtime tie on Jan. 7 in Providence, R.I. 

SCOUTING YALE
The Bulldogs (7-14-3, 6-9-2 ECAC) are coming off a 1-0-1 weekend with a 5-0 shutout win over Union and a 2-2 overtime tie with Rensselaer last weekend. The team, which was picked to finish tenth in the ECAC preseason poll above Brown and Union, has wins over Princeton, Colgate, Brown and Union and has losses to Quinnipiac, Cornell, Clarkson, St. Lawrence, Dartmouth and Harvard.

Currently holding the ninth spot in the league standings above Colgate which also has 14 points, Yale is led by freshman Jackie Raines and senior Bray Ketchum who both have a team-high 17 points each. Raines has eight goals and nine assists while Ketchum has six goals and 11 assists. 

SCOUTING BROWN
The Bears (2-19-3, 1-13-3 ECAC) are coming off a 3-2 loss to Union and a 4-2 loss to Rensselaer last weekend. The team, which is currently sitting in 11th place in the league standings, has five points from one win over Rensselaer and three ties with Union, Clarkson and Colgate. It also has losses to Dartmouth, Harvard, St. Lawrence, Providence, Quinnipiac, Princeton, Cornell, Clarkson, Yale, Rensselaer and Union. 

Picked to finish 11th in the preseason poll, Brown is led by Alena Polenska and Laurie Jolin who have 12 points apiece. Polenska has six goals and six assists while Jolin has eight goals and four assists. 

ECAC PRESEASON POLL
The Raiders were picked to finish ninth in the ECAC preseason poll that was released on Sept. 16. The defending regular-season and tournament champion Cornell, was picked to finish first with a total of 121 points and 11 first-place votes. Following the Big Red were Clarkson (105, one first-place vote), Harvard (103), Quinnipiac (79), St. Lawrence (77), and Princeton (73), with Rensselaer (70) and Dartmouth (52) rounding off the top eight spots. Colgate (43) along with Yale (34), Brown (24) and Union (11) were the four teams picked to miss out on this season's tournament.