By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Rochester Institute of Technology athletic director Lou Spiotti takes great pride when he speaks about the academic success of the school’s women’s hockey team.
Every player has graduated, and the men’s and women’s teams had a combined 3.30 GPA last school.
The trick now: restore the tradition of winning.
The Tigers have found the NCAA Division I waters deep and a little stormy. Since winning the Division III national championship in the 2011-12 season, the win total has been on a downward slide, from a 20-15-3 record in 2013-14 to 15-19-5, to 8-27-1, to 7-27-2 and finally to 4-28-3 last season.
Competing for talent on the recruiting trail isn’t easy when you can’t offer athletic scholarships. But new coach Chad Davis is more than willing to take on the challenge, and his team is buying into his mantra of determination.
“We want to be the most difficult team to play against,” said Davis, who came to RIT from NCAA Division III Adrian College in Michigan, “and that just comes down to compete level and a will to win.”
So far, so good. The Tigers opened the season last weekend on home ice against Holy Cross of Hockey East with a 2-0 victory and 1-1 tie. Junior goalie Terra Lanteigne made 25 saves for the shutout on Friday and stopped 24 shots the next day.
The Tigers will get an even greater test this weekend when they travel to central Minnesota to play a pair of games against St. Cloud State.
One player who is excited about the trip: sophomore defenseman Ellie Larson, who grew up and played high school hockey 50 miles south of St. Cloud in Hutchinson, Minn.
“This weekend is going to be so fun,” she said.
The previous weekend wasn’t so bad, either. Larson assisted on the game’s first goal on Friday, scored by Kendall Cornine, then scored the first goal of her collegiate career on Saturday to erase a 1-0 Holy Cross lead.
“Our team has always been close but we needed to come to the consensus that we need to be better and there needs to be an everyday mindset,” said Larson, who landed at RIT in part because of her pursuit of a degree in mechanical engineering. “Not every day is going to be great but we have to give a full effort every day.”
The Tigers are back at the Gene Polisenni Center on Oct. 19 and 20 with games against Union College. That’s Brick City Homecoming weekend. The Friday game is at 5 p.m. and the Saturday game starts at noon. The men then play their annual downtown game at 7 p.m. on Oct. 20 against Colgate.
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