Katie Stack and Kourtney Kunichika scored hat tricks and Rochester Institute of Technology defeated Adrian College, 10-1, in an NCAA Division III women’s quarterfinal.
“All of our lines were scoring and our power play was clicking,” said RIT coach Scott McDonald.
The Tigers got a power-play goal, a short-handed goal and two even strength tallies to build a 4-0 lead after the first period. Kunichika opened the scoring at 4:11 of the first, deflecting a shot from Melissa Bromley.
“I tried to screen the goalie,” said Kunichika on the first of her three goals. “I just kept going to the net and was in the right place at the right time.”
What was anticipated to be a goaltender’s duel between Adrian’s Emily Michelin (.933 save percentage) and RIT’s Laura Chamberlain (.957 save percentage) turned into a one-sided affair after RIT scored four goals in the second period to open an 8-0 lead. Stack scored three times in a 3:58 span, the last two coming 23 seconds apart.
“We were early in the shift, so coach said to stay out there,” said Stack. “Most of the work was done by my teammates.”
Adrian got on the board at 15:55 of the second period when Lauren Turner converted on a two-on-one.
The Tigers closed out the scoring with two more goals in the third period. RIT outshot Adrian for the game, 44-34. Chamberlin made 33 saves to improve to 18-1-2, while Michelin allowed seven goals on 21 shots before yielding to Ashley Drop, who stopped 20 of 23 shots.
“Laura (Chamberlain) has been the biggest part of our team,” said Stack. “She was the last thing we needed to put things into place.”
“We talked about how we needed to put teams away,” said McDonald. “After the first period, we talked about how (Adrian) had come back last weekend from being down 3-0. We kept up the intensity.”
