NEVILLE TWP., PA. — Robert Morris ended their regular season with a 6-2 loss to the Lindenwood Lions on Saturday afternoon at the Island Sports Center. Janelle Evans and Jersey Phillips scored for the Colonials, who are heading into the postseason after dropping their previous eight contests.
For Robert Morris, it’s a frustrating affair. For the majority of this weekend, as well as the one previous, the Colonials have been stride-for-stride in contention with their opponents. After outshooting the Lions 38-35 in today’s contest, it hasn’t exactly been the way the scoresheet has led you to believe beyond the goals stat. The consideration of bad bounces and opponent odd-player breaks aside, the effort has been more in the home squad’s wheelhouse. The finish, however, is still eluding the team.
The postseason is upon Robert Morris, and for better or worse, it’s a chance to bounce back after a rough stretch. The Colonials head to Syracuse to face the Orange in a one game playoff on February 22.
“Playoffs is a different animal,” Logan Bittle explained postgame. “For being at the top of the heap and not getting it done, to being in the lower half and getting it done, I told the girls that I’ve been around long enough to see two years in a row where the last place team made the playoffs, so why not us. Syracuse is a tough opponent, we haven’t had a win against them yet this year, so maybe we’re due.”
The game started similar to the previous few series, with the Lions getting an early goal from Zsofia Pazmandi before an improved effort on the power-play led to a Evans tap-in. The second period, like the previous night, was all Lindenwood as the Lions scored three times in the frame. Sidney Jackel, Maegan Cronin and Morgan Neitzke each tallied for Lindenwood in the frame. Gigi Pora and Nietzke extended the lead before a last ditch effort led to one of the highlights of the night.
Neitzke took a penalty with 1:18 remaining in the game and with nothing to lose Bittle pulled Maggie Hatch and allowed the six graduating seniors to finish the night out on the ice, leading to Phillips’ shot from the circle beating Catherine Hodges for the final goal of the evening on the power play.
“Obviously not the situation we wanted to be in, being down in the third period. We said ‘let’s make a memory’, last year our seniors beat Penn State. It’s kind of hard not to be romantic about sports, to be able to put them all out in that situation and then have them put one home. I’m happy they got to experience that”.
UP NEXT
The Colonials head to Syracuse, New York to face the Orange in a single-game playoff on Saturday, February 22. Face-off is TBD from the Tennity Ice Pavilion. If Robert Morris is victorious, they will face the Penn State Nittany Lions in a three game set the following weekend at the Pegula Ice Arena.
