Senior Brittany Phillips led the Colgate Raiders to a 2-1 victory against Rensselaer Polytechnic on Saturday night, clinching not only another victory for the Raiders, but the final ECAC playoff spot. 

“It’s great since we haven’t been [to the playoffs] in two years, especially under our new coaching staff,” junior Jocelyn Simpson said.

“I’m excited to keep the train rolling from this past weekend as we swept Union and Rensselaer. We just gotta do us,” sophomore Melissa Kueber said.

Colgate saw the stars align this past weekend as their own victory against Rensselaer, in addition to with Princeton’s loss to Yale,

catapulted the Raiders into playoff

position. The Raiders secured their win early, with Phillips scoring both the game’s first goal in the initial period, as well as the game winner in the second frame. These goals brought Phillips’ goal count to 16 on

the season.

Colgate managed to defend against three Rensselaer power-plays on Saturday afternoon, while also outshooting the Engineers 25-20. Eleven of those shots came in the first period alone. First-year goalie Ashlynne Rando tallied 19 blocked shots in the Colgate effort.

Phillips’s first goal came at the 13:35 mark of the starting period, unassisted from just outside the left crease. This marked the only score for either team in the first frame.

As the second period got underway, the Engineers were called for checking, and the Raiders seized the opportunity to capitalize on a power-play situation. First-year Nicole Gass and sophomore Miriam Drubel initiated the play, with Gass finding an open Drubel just before the four minute mark. 

Drubel fired a pass to Phillips between the two circles, and Phillips found the back of the net, notching the second goal of the game for the Raiders and extending their lead 2-0. 

The final period saw a surge of offensive pressure by the Engineers, but Rando had a spectacular 10 saves in the final period alone to ensure a victory for

the Raiders. 

With 2:24 left to play, Rensselaer

pulled their goalie in a last minute effort to get some points on the board. While Renesselaer’s junior Jordan Smelker managed to fire one home for the

Engineers with only 19 seconds left in the matchup, Renesselaer was ultimately unable to clinch an equalizing goal,

giving Colgate the win 2-1. 

Immediately after securing their own victory, the Raiders turned their attention to the Princeton-Yale match up; the Raiders required either a loss or a tie by the Tigers of Princeton in order to find themselves in playoff position. Colgate celebrated with the discovery of Yale’s victorious 4-2 decision against Princeton.

The Raiders are currently seeded eighth in the playoff bracket, set to face first-seed Cornell this weekend in Ithaca, NY. The first round of playoffs consists of a best-of-three series to be played on the ice of the higher-seeded team. Colgate faces Cornell this Friday at 7 p.m..