POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (September 23, 2017) – The Vassar College field hockey team got two goals from junior Emily Poehlein, scoring the last four tallies of the contest as the Brewers started Liberty League play with a 5-1 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in action from Weinberg Field.

The Brewers (6-2, 1-0 Liberty League) wasted no time getting on the board Saturday, as sophomore Rylie Pope scored her first career goal at 5:32, taking a ball out of mid-air off a pass from Alyssa More and shooting it into the left corner for the 1-0 lead.

The Engineers responded just under three minutes later, as Charisse Stakutis collected a loose ball in the box off a deflected pass and fired it home to deadlock the contest at 1-1. Only 121 seconds later, Vassar regained its lead thanks to Poehlein's first of the game. On the sequence senior Storm Sideleau pushed a beautiful cross from Sam Plante right to Poehlein, who sent her shot into the left top corner for the score.

That's where the score would stay through the rest of the first half, thought RPI had a semi-breakway at 12:09 of the game but a Mikaela DiBello shot was smothered by VC keeper Liz Rotollo. Both teams would have strong chances through the rest of the period, but nothing came to fruition as the halftime buzzer sounded with the score still at 2-1 VC.

After the break, the Brewers started to take advantage of their chances and doubled their lead as freshman Grace Amell nudged a loose ball off a shot from Megan Caveny over the line to make the score 3-1. Less than two minutes later at 40:53, Poehlein netted her second of the game and sixth of the season, as Lopez picked the pocket of a RPI defender to create a 2-0. After drawing the keeper, Lopez dished off to Poehlein who had a wide open cage.

Vassar finished the scoring at 46:14 of the game, as Caveny tallied for the 11^th time this season after a Sideleau shot was knocked off the line by Christina Hanos to Caveny, who deposited it home. That's how things would finish, as the Brewers moved to 5-0 at home this season.

Vassar outshot its visitors on Saturday 29-12, while earning a 13-5 penalty corner edge. Engineer goalkeeper Rachel Kaufman stopped 11 shots, and the RPI defense added five defensive saves as well. Rotolo posted five saves in 51:39 minutes before giving way to junior Paige Amico to finish out the contest.

Caveny led all shot takers on Saturday with six on the day, while Sideleau also finished with six attempts on cage for the Brewers. DiBello led RPI in shots with five, as Hanos and Lauren Hiltz each had a pair of defensive stops in defeat.

Vassar will now turn its attention to a non-conference tussle with Hartwick College this Wednesday afternoon in Oneonta, while RPI will continue its five-game road trip with a trip to William Smith College next Saturday, September 30 at 2 p.m. in Geneva, NY.