TROY, N.Y. – Harvard women's hockey fell on the road this afternoon to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) after a 60-minute battle. The Crimson (13-13-3, 7-11-3 ECAC) could not overcome an early lead from the Engineers (7-26-0, 4-17-0 ECAC), who earned the victory in the penultimate matchup of the regular season. With the ECAC standings still shaking out, Harvard now looks to tomorrow's matchup at Union, where it will attempt to secure three points and improve its position in the league table.  
 

How it Happened

The last weekend of the regular season began in central New York for the Harvard women's ice hockey team, who made the trip to Troy to battle the RPI Engineers. The Crimson was looking to continue its strong run of results at Houston Fieldhouse when it met the Engineers on Friday afternoon.
 
Harvard made their move early putting eight shots on goal in the first ten minutes of action. The RPI netminder was able to push all the attempts aside to help her team weather the storm of Crimson offensive pressure. Ainsley Tuffy was not tested much in the opening minutes of the game, but RPI countered with a strong push on the powerplay late in the period. The Engineers struck first, scoring a goal on the powerplay to take a 1-0 lead. The team held on to the advantage throughout the rest of the period to take a lead into the first intermission.
 
RPI continued to look towards net in a fast-paced start to the second period. A trio of saves by Tuffy and blocked shots by Crimson skaters helped Harvard keep the Engineers off the board in the opening ten minutes. Midway through the period, Harvard briefly tied up the game off a goal from Zoe Boosamra but a successful challenge by the Engineers wiped the goal off the board. Tuffy made four more saves in the period to keep the game at 1-0 heading into the final frame.
 
The Engineers took control in the final period, posting two goals in the opening 10 minutes to take a 3-0 lead. Harvard fought back with a goal by Kaley MacDonald, who capitalized on a rebound chance on the doorstep to make the score 3-1. RPI answered with the final goal of the game, closing the door on Harvard's comeback bid to secure a 4-1 win over Harvard.
 

Harvard Highlights

- Kaley MacDonald scored her third goal of the season.
- Morgan McGathey and Elle Sproule each logged assists on the goal.
- The duo now shares the team lead in points (14) with Carla McSweeney.
 

Up Next

Harvard will close out its regular season schedule tomorrow afternoon with a battle against the Union Garnet Chargers. The Crimson will take on the Chargers inside the newly opened M&T Bank Center in Schenectady tomorrow afternoon at 3:00 PM. The battle will stream live on ESPN+.