NEVILLE TWP., PA — Thalia D’Elia opened up the scoring in the first and Veronica Bac added two power-play goals as the Robert Morris Colonials opened up the 2024-25 Atlantic Hockey campaign with a 3-1 win over the Union Garnet Chargers at the Island Sports Center on Friday night.
Bac added an assist on the evening to finish with three points. D’Elia, the sophomore defender from West Chester, also had an assist on both of Bac’s goals.
The Colonials came out with a little more speed than their previous squad, matching the Union attack from the opening whistle. Robert Morris utilized a face-off win to break through a defensive lockdown by the Garnet Chargers and Janelle Evans fired a pass from the left wall to D’Elia, who in turn found space over the glove of Union starter Sophie Matsoukas at 4:48.
Union ramped up the intensity in the second, giving the Colonials a fit with a tougher than normal forecheck, but also running into penalty trouble, yielding three advantages to Robert Morris. The first two quickly evaporated as penalties on Janelle Evans and a bench minor for too many players occurred for the Colonials. The Evans penalty came as the Garnet Chargers created a shorthanded opportunity with an unmarked forward driving down the slot unimpeded. The second led to the Maren Friday power-play goal at 9:58. The two squads meandered back and forth with several chances on Colonials goaltender Maggie Hatch up to task.
The power-play finally came alive in the third as a tic-tac-toe play between Alaina Giampietro and D’Elia ended up off of the stick of Bac and behind Matsoukas at 1:48, and a late period conversion by Bac at 19:59.9 padded the win for Robert Morris.
Hatch started the contest for the Colonials and stopped 32 of the 33 shots she faced while Matsoukas stopped 23 of 26.
SOPHOMORES…
The Colonials return-to-play last year gave them a surplus of experience by way of the transfer portal as well as four returning players from the 2020-21 CHA Championship squad – all defenders. It also netted a number of first year players to take up the graduating classes place. Those players were elevated to an early role – mentorship.
“We had to take up a lot of responsibility,” D’Elia said. “We had to be good leaders for the freshmen, good examples.”
“Even though we are young, it’s young experience,” Logan Bittle explained. “The preseason for us was extremely different in the sense that you weren’t teaching 24 new players everything all over again, the returners came in and guided the way and showed what we’re trying to do. That made things a lot easier and a lot more exciting. I said before the game today to look around to the left and right of you. Those are the girls you are going to battle with this year. This is our team. This is the team that is going to compete for a championship, hopefully.”
UP NEXT
The Colonials and Garnet Chargers face off at 3:00 on Saturday at the Island Sports Center to close the weekend set.
