TROY, N.Y. - Skidmore College scored four times in a 5-minute span to turn a deficit into the lead and the Thoroughbreds held off Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 5-3 in a Liberty League contest at Harkness Field.
Morgan Sickels had two goals, both coming in the third, with an assist to lead Skidmore, which won for the fifth straight time to improve to 11-6 overall and 6-0 in the conference. RPI falls to 0-15 and 0-6.
The win clinches the regular season title for the Thoroughbreds who have five straight and eight of nine. Skidmore will host a Liberty League semifinal on Nov. 6.
Trailing 2-1 entering the latter stages of the third quarter, Sickels took a short pass from
Mariah Redler and swept the ball into the goal to knot the score at 11:45 into the frame. Just under three minutes later (44:31), the forward scored from nearly the same spot - the left side of the cage - when a rebound squirted to her, which Sickels put into the back of the goal for her sixth of the season and a 3-2 lead.
Skidmore needed just 27 seconds to make it 4-2, this time with
Gabrielle Vaccaro re-directing a
Sofia Marshall well-placed feed into the air and in the cage with only two seconds left in the third quarter. The Thoroughbreds made it 5-2 only 1:02 into the fourth when
Carrie Hughes set herself up by pulling the ball back to get open and fired a shot that deflected off a defender's stick and into the cage.
RPI, which held a 2-1 lead at halftime, continued to battle and got to within two goals on a well-designed penalty corner goal by Brianna Duba.
Skidmore opened an early lead when senior
Jordan Mjaatvedt scored her sixth of the season just 3:28 into the contest. Sickels sent the ball into the circle, where it was deflected by a Rensselaer defender and Mjaatvedt swept the loose ball under Jen Richardson, RPI's goalkeeper who came out to challenge the shot.
RPI tied the game later in the quarter when sophomore Lauren Roy deflected a pass from Stakutis into the far corner of the cage.
Roy scored again, this time on Rensselaer's third attempt in a heavy offensive sequence after a penalty corner. Stakutis had a shot saved with the rebound going to Olivia Jackson, whose attempt was knocked away at the goal line by Skidmore defender
Hanako Memon. Roy then chipped in the ball with 1:38 left in the second quarter.
RIchardson finished with eight saves for the Engineers, who got defensive saves from Duba and Emma Lewis.
Maddy Carre stopped five shots for Skidmore.
Skidmore hosts league foe Vassar College on Sunday at 1pm.
