View Full Version : RPI Women's Hockey
Its now a final: RPI over UMB 5-1.
I caught the saturday game against UMB. It wasn't much of a game to be honest. RPI dominated throughout. Ciarletta and Belmonte from UMB put up ridiculous numbers last year but I wasn't impressed with either to be honest. Random thoughts :
- Rosina played solid, as usual. She didn't have to make a lot of saves but was there for the few good chances UMB did generate.
- Three freshman played (Thompson, McNamara, Barbera). All are very good. It seems that Aho and Thompson have very good chemistry on the ice. Those two will give teams fits.
- For those of you who don't know, Kari Rabatin is now playing forward after playing defense her first two years. She has a lot of skill, it seems like much more than we ever got to see when she was playing D.
- Welte scored a couple goals. She looked a little slow / tentative out there at times. I would assume she's still recovering from surgery? Even so, a Welte at 50% is better than most players.
- The defense is MUCH improved this year with the addition of McNamara and Barbera, two smooth skating D.
- Is Libaridian injured or just not playing? She transferred from Findlay and I would think could be a solid contributor to this team.
So it's on to Salve Regina and probably two easy W's. These would be games to get some of the other Freshman involved and see what they can do.
One of the encouraging things so far for the Engineers is that Burke has managed to spread the offensive talent over at least three lines and get fairly balanced offensive production. It will be interesting to see if that is successful against some of the tougher teams. Although these lines haven't been together for every game, in recent games the lines seem to be as follows (with total goals to date):
10 goals from the line of Aho (7), Temple (2), and Thompson (1)
9 goals from the line of Daniel (5), Rabatin (4), and Rice
7 goals from the line of Welte (4), Langille (1), Onksen (2)
uvmcats
11-18-2004, 06:52 PM
I caught the saturday game against UMB. It wasn't much of a game to be honest. RPI dominated throughout. Ciarletta and Belmonte from UMB put up ridiculous numbers last year but I wasn't impressed with either to be honest.
I completely concur in your assessment of the UMB duo. Ciarletta is the stronger of the two but neither should be a gamebreaker. I saw them last year and, I believe, at an off season tourney in Marlboro. I don't discount an ability to be in the right place at the right time but any decent defense person who concentrates on them should be able to keep them off the scoreboard.
mr_itty
11-22-2004, 09:05 PM
I attended both the 2nd UMB game last week and both Salve Regina games this past weekend. If the UMB games were a dominance, the SR games were just a complete decimation. Over the two games, RPI outscored Salve 17-0 and outshot them 130-17. It was almost embarassing to watch. The odd part was that it wasn't until the 17th goal - in the last 5 or 6 minutes of the 2nd game - that Salve Regina seemed to come alive. Prior to that, RPI may as well have been on a power play the entire weekend.
As much as I want to see RPI succeed, especially with going D1, I can only hope future games give better competition. At this rate, the goalies just aren't having enough experience. I almost welcome the Manhattanville series in early January.
In other news, it would be nice if we could fill a few more seats. The lack of fan attendence is truly depressing.
jericho
11-23-2004, 09:40 AM
A reminder that the game today against Williams College can be heard today at 7 pm on WRPI and www.wrpi.org
mr_itty
11-23-2004, 10:03 AM
A reminder that the game today against Williams College can be heard today at 7 pm on WRPI and www.wrpi.org
Jericho, will you be doing the Play-by-Play again tonight? I tend to listen to the broadcast while watching the game.
Red Cloud
11-23-2004, 10:07 AM
A reminder that the game today against Williams College can be heard today at 7 pm on WRPI and www.wrpi.org
Should be a good game to get some real game experience for Vallarelli and Schiff. I went to last year's game at Williams and it was probably the best game of women's hockey I've seen since I've never seen RPI beat Manhattanville. :D
Looking forward to the game tonight. I got to see the dismantling of Salve Regina on Saturday and the team looked good. Only Salve chance was in the last minutes of the game, and the team had few SOGs.
jericho
11-23-2004, 10:23 AM
Jericho, will you be doing the Play-by-Play again tonight? I tend to listen to the broadcast while watching the game.
Not tonight, sorry. :D
USCHO GM
11-23-2004, 10:42 AM
Jericho, will you be doing the Play-by-Play again tonight? I tend to listen to the broadcast while watching the game.
Unfortunately you get me tonight.
mr_itty
11-23-2004, 10:48 AM
Unfortunately you get me tonight.
I don't think I realized how much of the WRPI staff participates in these forums. ;-) Regardless, I'll be the one sitting below and behind you wearing my headphones. Have a good broadcast!
On a related note - does the HFH have wireless access for laptops yet?
knsmith
11-23-2004, 11:59 AM
I don't think I realized how much of the WRPI staff participates in these forums. ;-) Regardless, I'll be the one sitting below and behind you wearing my headphones. Have a good broadcast!
On a related note - does the HFH have wireless access for laptops yet?
Yes there is wireless, and in addition I hear that there will be some jerk doing the color tonight.
;)
I was checking out RPI's unofficial site and I saw that there are pictures of each class (http://www.rpiwomenshockey.freeweb-hosting.com/team.html). I didn't realize how big the senior class is. That bodes very well in terms of transitioning into D1. Those seven slots can be filled by D1 caliber (hopefully) players. That's not to say that there aren't able players in the senior class but recruiting needs to take a big step up if RPI is to be even remotely competitive in D1. I'm glad RPI has chosen this timeline for the transition. I expect to see a good mix (some new, some current) of high quality players next year. Anybody think this team can be as successful in the transition as Clarkson has been?
Great job by whoever is maintaing the unofficial women's site. It's excellent. The interviews are one of the best features!
mr_itty
11-23-2004, 05:24 PM
I didn't realize how big the senior class is. That bodes very well in terms of transitioning into D1. Those seven slots can be filled by D1 caliber (hopefully) players. That's not to say that there aren't able players in the senior class but recruiting needs to take a big step up if RPI is to be even remotely competitive in D1.
WRPI played an interview with Coach Burke a couple weeks ago, during which he basically said exactly that. He said that this recruiting year as been vastly different from years past because of the fact that they're now recruiting for a D1 team. It was a good interview.
Ralph Baer
11-23-2004, 06:11 PM
I don't think I realized how: much of the WRPI staff participates in these forums. ;-) Thankfully not whoever have been the discjockeys that have done the shows before the games the last few years. :D At least I hope not. :eek
[QUOTE=leeb] Anybody think this team can be as successful in the transition as Clarkson has been?
QUOTE]
As you indicate, it all comes down to recruiting. RPI has an advantage of starting with a small core of players who are D1 calibre, and a few others who might be able to make the transition, but they will need to add a half dozen solid D1 freshmen players next year to be competitive. Hopefully they are close to getting those commitments, because most of the top D1 prospects are in the late stages of making their decisions about now. It is tough attracting the top prospects who can choose to attend a real contender. I think the best strategy for a new team is to go after athletic, hard working players who may not have 'star' status, but who have the potential to outwork more highly skilled teams on some nights. I talked to the Clarkson coach at about this time two years ago, and he was well advanced to putting together his top handful of players by then. His big recruiting success was in goaltenders: if you can get a standout goalie that can keep you in a few games it gives you time to build the rest of the team.
Ralph Baer
11-23-2004, 06:42 PM
One of the Freshmen, Chelsea Ward, mentions in an interview http://www.rpiwomenshockey.freeweb-hosting.com/wardinterview.html I loved the campus and the idea of being able to be a tri-sport athlete, at least in my first year.That sounds like some of the returning players will be receiving athletic scholarships next year because they won't be able to play DIII sports if they receive a scholarship next season.
mr_itty
11-23-2004, 06:42 PM
As noted earlier, the HFH does indeed have wireless access now, and I'm sitting at just about Center Ice. 18:35 until puck drop. I'll be happy to post scoring updates as long as my battery lasts (or is there a better forum/topic to do that? I don't know if the "Scoring Updates" forum is generally only for Men's games...).
Ralph Baer
11-23-2004, 06:44 PM
As noted earlier, the HFH does indeed have wireless access now, and I'm sitting at just about Center Ice. 18:35 until puck drop. I'll be happy to post scoring updates as long as my battery lasts (or is there a better forum/topic to do that? I don't know if the "Scoring Updates" forum is generally only for Men's games...). We have used the forum last season on occasion for women's games, but it probably doesn't matter.
mr_itty
11-23-2004, 07:14 PM
1st period, 9:20 left. First penalty of the night, RPI's Dielwart for cross checking. No score.
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