NEVILLE TWP., PA — Mercyhurst shut down the Robert Morris attack once again on Saturday as the Colonials fell 5-0 to the Lakers. Julia Schalin registered a hat trick while Vanessa Upson opened the scoring on the power play and Thea Johansson tallied a short-handed goal in the second. Jorden Mattison registered her second consecutive shutout of the weekend for Mercyhurst.
Maggie Hatch stopped 58 shots to sit in fourth all time in Robert Morris single game saves, putting her at 94 for the weekend while only ceding 7 goals in the process.
“You hope that it fires the team up, you can play for that.” Logan Bittle said postgame of the high number of saves. “It’s the confidence that you could be in any game, no matter how you’re playing. If you go out, play hard and play well you don’t go out and waste that opportunity.”
The Colonials shooting woes continued in the second contest as the Lakers peppered Hatch, outshooting Robert Morris 12-1 before the first media timeout. An altercation in front of the benches gave the Colonials a chance to dig back in and get on track in the waning moments of the frame as Henlee Mahoney and Lindsey Smolen were battling for position. Contact was made with the head of the Colonials forward Smolen, but initially the officials did not make a call on the ice. Logan Bittle would immediately challenge and the Lakers sophomore found herself out the contest at 13:22 while Smolen served a two minute minor for roughing after what seemed to be a two-second review. The Colonials took advantage of the bounces and were able to gain momentum towards the end of the period.
The ending of the first was all for naught as Mercyhurst bounced off the Robert Morris momentum shift and watched as Upson (6:15), Johansson (14:39) and Julia Schalin (16:46, 18:57) scored twice for Lakers late in the second en route to a 4-0 Mercyhurst lead. The Lakers outshot the Colonials 17-1 in the second frame.
Schalin added her third goal at 12:23 of the final frame.
UP NEXT
The Colonials head on the road for the remainder of the 2024 calendar year with a stop in Happy Valley to begin the six-game road swing. Face-off from the Pegula Ice Arena in State College is set for 2:00pm November 22 and 1:00pm November 23. The team will head to Syracuse and finish up the year in Long Island against LIU. The next Colonials home game takes place on January 3 against Yale, a 7:00pm face-off at the Island Sports Center.
