The RPI Engineers women's ice hockey team are a

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) Division I women's

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

program that represents

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (; RPI) is a private university, private research university in Troy, New York, United States. It is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world and the Western Hemisphere. It was establishe ...

(RPI). The Engineers are a member of the

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

(ECACHL) conference. They play at the

Houston Field House Houston Field House is a multi-purpose arena located on the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York. It is the nation's third-oldest college hockey rink, behind Northeastern University's Matthews Arena and Princeton U ...

Troy, New York Troy is a city in and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, United States. It is located on the western edge of the county, on the eastern bank of the Hudson River just northeast of the capital city of Albany, New York, Albany. At the ...

History

The Engineers women's hockey program began for the 1995–96 season, playing at the

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...

level in

ECAC East New England Hockey Conference (formerly the ECAC East) is a college athletic conference which operates in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference. __TOC__ History The New England ...

. In their final season in Division III, the 2004–05 season, the Engineers qualified to the championship game of the ECAC East Tournament. It was their second consecutive season in the championship. That season, RPI had 21 wins, compared to only 6 losses and a league record of 17–2–0. In addition, the Engineers were ranked second in the nation in scoring defense (allowing only 1.22 goals per game). Nationally, the Engineers were fourth in power play percentage and eighth in scoring offense. The star of the team was sophomore Julie Aho. She was selected as an AHCA National All-America, and led the team in scoring in each of her first two seasons. In 2005–06, RPI was a Division I

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

. The club won 18 games, lost 6 and tied 2. During that season, the team notched wins over Colgate, Northeastern,

Connecticut Connecticut ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. ...

and

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

. Despite being an independent, the Engineers were ranked fourth in the NCAA in winning percentage (.731) and seventh in scoring offense (3.23 goals per game average). Senior goaltender Rosina Schiff would become the program's all-time leader in wins with 40 (since broken) and games played with 65 (since broken). Rensselaer joined the ECAC for the 2006–07 season. In its second season in the ECAC (2007–08), Rensselaer won 13 games, compared to 15 losses and 5 ties and a conference record of 6–12–4. The Engineers matched the single season record for ties, including its first-ever point over then nationally ranked Dartmouth in a 1–1 draw in Hanover. The record for most wins at the NCAA Division I level in one season is 19, which was set in 2008–09 (19–14–4). The overall program record is 21, set in 2004–05, the team's last year at the Division III level. The Engineers made NCAA history on February 28, 2010, beating

Quinnipiac The Quinnipiac were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They lived in present-day New Haven County, Connecticut, along the Quinnipiac River. Their primary village, also called Quinnipiac, was where New Haven, Connect ...

2–1 in five overtime periods. Senior defenseman Laura Gersten had the game-winning goal. She registered it at 4:32 of the fifth overtime session to not only clinch the win, but the series victory. It is now the second longest college hockey game in NCAA history, surpassed a few weeks later on March 12, 2010, in a men's hockey contest between

beat Union. During the 2010–11 season, the Engineers boasted one statistic that no other Division I team in the country could: three Alaskan players on its current roster. Amanda Castignetti is from Anchorage (and attended Shattuck St-Mary's in Minnesota), Jordan Smelker, a freshman from Anchorage, and Nona Letuligasenoa (attended the North American Hockey Academy in Stowe, Vermont) were the three players in question.

Engineers in Pro Hockey

As of autumn 2016, there were six Engineers alumnae who had competed in professional women's ice hockey. The list of players includes Whitey Naslund (Class of 2010), Sonja van der Bliek (Class of 2011), Andie LeDonne (Class of 2013), Delaney Middlebrook and Jordan Smelker (Class of 2015) and Alexa Gruschow (Class of 2016). Naslund would play for the CWHL's

Boston Blades Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England, a region of the Northeastern United States. It has an area of and a ...

under head coach

Digit Murphy Margaret Pearl "Digit" Murphy (née Degidio; born December 7, 1961) is an American ice hockey coach, administrator, and former college ice hockey player. She is president of the Metropolitan Riveters of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). Murph ...

, capturing a Clarkson Cup championship in 2013. LeDonne and van der Bliek also competed in the CWHL, with van der Bliek taking on goaltender roles with the

Brampton Thunder The Markham Thunder was a professional women's ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). From 1998 through 2017, the franchise was known as the Brampton Thunder and Brampton Canadettes-Thunder before relocating from Brampton, O ...

and

Toronto Furies The Toronto Furies were a professional women's ice hockey team that played in Toronto, Ontario, as members of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. The Toronto Furies played their home games at the Mastercard Centre in Toronto. The team was establish ...

. Middlebrook would compete with Riksserien in the Swedish Elite League. Both Isobel Cup champions, Smelker was a member of the

Boston Pride The Boston Pride was a professional women's ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the four charter franchises of the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF). The Pride played at Warrior Ice Arena, which is also the practice fac ...

roster that captured the NWHL's inaugural championship in 2016. As a side note, Smelker also won a

Clarkson Cup The Clarkson Cup () is an ice hockey trophy awarded to Canada's national women's champions. Commissioned by former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, the trophy was first unveiled in July 2006 when Clarkson ceremoniously presented it to the Ca ...

in 2015 with the CWHL's Boston Blades. Winning the NWHL regular season scoring title in 2018, Gruschow was MVP of the Isobel Cup Finals in the same year, hoisting the Cup with the

Metropolitan Riveters The Metropolitan Riveters (originally the New York Riveters) were a professional women's ice hockey team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, with home games at the American Dream Meadowlands ice rink. They were one of the four charter franc ...

Year by year

After transitioning the program to the Division I level, Burke served as head coach for 11 more seasons before being fired in June, 2017. Bryan Vines was named interim head coach later that month and took the helm beginning with the 2017–18 season. *''Prior to the 2005–06 season, the Engineers were in NCAA Division III''.

Players

2022–23 roster

As of September 6, 2022.

Notable players

* Ena Nystrøm ( G), 2019–2020 * Lovisa Selander ( G), 2015–2019 * Jordan Smelker ( F), 2010–2014 * Sonja van der Bliek ( G), 2007–2011 *

Alison Wright Alison Wright (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. She is best known for her starring role as Martha Hanson on the FX period spy drama series ''The Americans'' (2013–2017), for which she received critical acclaim and a Primetime Emmy ...

( F), 2006–2010 As of the end of the 2009–10 season, Sonja van der Bliek was RPI's single season record holder in numerous categories: most games played (84), most games started (83), most wins (42–31–11), most minutes played (5161:36), most saves (1922) and most shutouts (16). In the 2017–18 season, junior goaltender Lovisa Selander overtook van der Bliek as the all-time leader in career saves. She enters her senior season in 2018–19 with 2,935 career stops.

Awards and honors

* Julie Aho, AHCA National All-America (2005) * Laura Gersten,

Sarah Devens Award The Sarah Devens Award is given as a joint award between the ECAC Hockey and Hockey East conferences to a women's ice hockey player. The criteria for the Devens Award is for a player who demonstrates leadership and commitment both on and off the ice ...

* Alisa Harrison, ECAC Hockey All-Rookie Team (2009) * Whitney Naslund, ECAC Hockey Championship All-Tournament Team (2009) * Sierra Vadner, Defense, 2009 ECAC All-Rookie Team * Sonja van der Bliek was named the ECAC Goaltender of the Week (for the week of March 1, 2010) * Sarah Daniel, 2 time Academic All American and two-time captain, 2006, 2007 * Lovisa Selander, ECAC Rookie of the Year & Goalie of the Year Finalist, ECAC Third Team All-Conference, ECAC All-Rookie Team (2015–16), All-ECAC Hockey Preseason Team (2016–17), ECAC Hockey Second Team All-Conference (2017–18), ECAC Hockey Pre-Season Team, ECAC Goaltender of the Year, ECAC First Team All-Conference, CCM Hockey/AHCA Division I First Team All-America, Top-10 Patty Kazmaier Award Nominee, NCAA All-Time Division I Women's Hockey career saves record holder (4,167) (2018–19).

Olympians

This is a list of Rensselaer alumni who were a part of an Olympic team.

Engineers in professional hockey

References

External links

* {{New York Sports College ice hockey teams in New York (state) 1995 establishments in New York (state) Ice hockey clubs established in 1995