Women's Hockey to Return to ECAC Play at Union, RPI

Friday, January 9

Schenectady, N.Y.

6:00 PM

Princeton University

Union

Brooklyn Nimegeers and the Tigers will take on Union and RPI this weekend.

Photo by: Shelley M. Szwast

Women's Hockey to Return to ECAC Play at Union, RPI

January 05, 2026 | Women's Ice Hockey

In the rankings: Princeton stands No. 9 in both the latest USCHO and the latest USA Hockey/The Rink Live national rankings. ECAC Hockey has six teams ranked in at least one of the two 15-team polls, in No. 7/7 Quinnipiac, No. 9/9 Princeton, No. 10/10 Cornell, No. 11/11 Clarkson, No. 13/15 Colgate, and No. 14/13 Yale.

Princeton in the polls: The No. 9 ranking, which the team has held since Dec. 8-9, is Princeton's highest since Oct. 17-18, 2022, when it was also No. 9 in both polls. It's the latest in the season Princeton has been as high as No. 9 in the polls since ending the 2019-20 season at No. 6 (Mar. 9-10, 2020).

ECAC Standings: With 22 standings points, Princeton (10 games played) holds a 1.5-point lead over second-place Brown (20.5, 12 games) with Clarkson (19.5, 9 gms), and Cornell (18, 10 gms) as the top four and Yale (18, 12 gms) in the fifth spot. The top four teams will get a bye to the quarterfinals and host that round.

Against Union and RPI: Princeton swept the weekend against the capital-region teams Oct. 31-Nov. 1 in Baker. The seven goals in a 4-3 win over RPI came from seven players, with Angelina DiGirolamo getting the OT winner and Taylor Hyland making 17 stops in the win. Reese Keating made 30 saves to keep the Engineers in it. Mackenzie Alexander had two goals in the team's 5-2 win over Union the next night, with Uma Corniea making 24 saves. Emma Rheaume stopped 37 shots for Union. Princeton holds a 38-3-1 all-time series lead over Union, has won four straight and is unbeaten in six straight since a 2022 loss in Schenectady. Against RPI, Princeton is 23-10-6 all-time and has won two since a loss last season in Troy.

Win streak: Princeton's nine-game winning streak is its longest since a program-record 12-game run from Nov. 27, 2015-Jan. 29, 2016. It's tied for the second-longest streak in program history, along with a nine-game run from Feb. 4-Mar. 4, 2006.

Top line: Mackenzie Alexander has points in 12 of 17 games this season, and Princeton is 11-1 in those games. Alexander has 12 goals and eight assists for 20 points in the last nine games, all Princeton wins. Issy Wunder also has a nine-game point streak, scoring 11 goals and adding 10 assists for 21 points. Emerson O'Leary has points in five of the last six games on a goal and 10 assists. Over the last nine games, the top line has scored 46.5 percent (53 of 114) of the team's points.

Between the pipes: Uma Corniea has been in net for five games of the nine-game winning streak, with Taylor Hyland and Lia Nevo splitting time in the non-conference weekends against Providence and Stonehill. In the five games, Corniea has twice been named ECAC Goalie of the Week and was the league's November Goalie of the Month. Over those last five games, Corniea has a .946 save percentage and a 1.78 GAA.

Stat Rankings: Entering the week, Princeton ranked fifth in the nation in power-play percentage (.286), fifth in scoring margin (+1.94), fifth in scoring offense (3.59), sixth in scoring defense (1.65), sixth in team GAA (1.634), seventh in winning percentage (.765), eighth in team shutouts (four) and 10th in PK percentage (.870). Individually, Mackenzie Alexander was second in power-play goals (five), third in goals per game (1.00), and seventh in PPG (1.71), while Issy Wunder was sixth in game-winning goals (four), and seventh in goals per game (0.76).

What's next: Princeton will return home next weekend, facing Harvard and Dartmouth for the first time this season.