POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (March 27, 2014) – The Vassar College women's lacrosse team will open their Liberty League schedule with two home games this weekend. For the remaining contests scheduled this season, all of them will be League plays.

Game Details
Opponent: Skidmore College Thoroughbreds (1-5, 0-0 Liberty League)
Site: Poughkeepsie, NY
Facility: Weinberg Field
Date: March 28, 2014
Time: 4:00 pm
Live Stats
Live Video

Game Details
Opponent: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers (2-3, 0-0 Liberty League)
Site: Poughkeepsie, NY
Facility: Weinberg Field
Date: March 29, 2014
Time: 3:00 pm
Live Stats
Live Video

A Look At The Brewers
The Brewers (5-1, 0-0 Liberty League) had two of their eight scorers on Tuesday record hat-tricks. Both Leigh Anne Baldwin (Simsbury, CT/Westminster School) and Dara Davis (Guilford, CT/Guilford) posted the triple-goal performances in Vassar's 16-8 win over Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT. The Brewers had two season-best performances from Zoe Ripecky (Chicago, IL/St. Ignatius College Preparatory) and Nicole Magney (Chevy Chase, MD/Maret School). Both of the seniors scored twice.

Isabelle Goldstein (Belmont, MA/Belmont) leads the Brewer offense with 22 points from 13 goals and a team-high nine assists. Davis leads Vassar with 18 goals including eight from free position. Jacqueline Palma (Manhasset, NY/Manhasset Junior-Senior) is top on the defensive side of play with 18 ground balls and 10 caused turnovers. Kate Pula (Washington Township, NJ/Immaculate Heart Academy) is the Brewers' starting goalie with 22 saves from 56 shots on goal this season.

A Look At The Thoroughbreds
Skidmore recently fell 15-7 to Hamilton College in non-league play. Tyler Phillips scored four goals and recorded an assist to lead the Thoroughbreds. She also won a game-high six draw controls. Spencer Morgan added two goals for Skidmore along with the team-best five ground balls. Megan Kolopsky had eight saves out of the 23 shots on goal.

Phillips has double the points of any of her teammates with 18 from 15 goals and three assists. She is also the team leader in draw controls with 17. Peggy Healy is the leader with five assists. Rachel Talanian leads the defensive play with 18 ground balls and is tied with two others for the caused turnover top spot with six. Allie Sosinsky is the only Thoroughbred with a win in goal, allowing 15 scores and stopping 11.

Against Skidmore All-Time
The Brewers and Thoroughbreds have been competing against each other since 1992. Vassar didn't see its first win until 1996 with the largest score margin in series history, 22-4. The Brewers have never been shutout in any of the games involved in the Skidmore-favored 17-5 series record. Vassar however, blanked Skidmore 11-0 last year on the road.

A Look At The Engineers
RPI recently topped Babson College 11-7 on the road in Massachusetts on Tuesday night. Meg Colitz scored all four of her goals during the second half and her teammates added another five for the rallying win. Erin Riley had two goals and one assist as well as the game-high in draw controls, winning six. RPI will play Bard College on Friday, March 28 before making the short trip to Weinberg Field.

Jamie Wakefield leads the Engineers with 13 points from nine goals and four assists and is followed by Colitz with seven scores and four helpers for 11 points. Also with 11 points is Rachel Scofield who had a team-best six assists and 12 ground balls. Riley leads RPI with 20 draw controls. Erin Amarello is the only Engineer to play in goal this season with 36 saves and 49 goals allowed.

Against RPI All-Time
The Brewers are 3-19 against the Engineers including the two losses that were dealt to them in Troy, NY during the regular season 4-15 defeat and the opening round of the Liberty League Playoffs 5-12 falling. RPI went on to win the Liberty League with a 14-5 score over St. Lawrence and then dropping out of the NCAA tournament in the third round by means of an 8-10 score against now #3 Middlebury College.

Top 5 In The League
The Brewers are in the Top 5 in every statistical category in the Liberty League that they have registered a stat for. They are also the No. 1 team in goals, assists, points, shot percentage, shots on goal, woman-down goals per game and draw controls per game.

Better Than Last Year
10 of the Brewers are on pace to better last year's season goal numbers. Another nine look to break their season points and then seven are in rhythm to better their assists from the 2013 season.

National Recognition
Vassar has five different players who are ranked in the nation in eight different categories. Goldstein leads the way with points (#186) and assists (#95) per game as well as total assists (#139). Davis has two national rankings with goals per game (#125) and draw controls (#147) while Pula is listed in goals-against average (#150) and save percentage (#198). Junior Hilary McDonnell (Blue Bell, PA/The Springside School) is #97 in goals-against average while Palma is #166 in caused turnovers. All individual stat rankings are out of 200 Division III student-athletes.

Reversed Start From 2013
The Brewers started this season with a loss to Regis University and have so far, won five straight. Last year, they began the season with a five-game run before falling to Rochester Institute of Technology.

Up Next
The Brewers will next spend almost the entire month of April on the road, starting with a Saturday, April 5 2:00 pm start at Bard College and ending with a 2:00 pm start on Saturday, April 19 at St. Lawrence University before returning to Weinberg Field on Friday, April 25 against University of Rochester at 4:00 pm.