MANKATO, Minn.--- Minnesota State women's hockey is set to begin the regular season with a home series at Verizon Center against Rensselaer on homecoming weekend. Games will be played on Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 2:07 p.m., both days. 

Minnesota State All-Time: The MSU women's hockey program — started in 1998-99 — is currently in its 21st season of competition and has compiled a 176-464-57 (.293) record in 697 total games played. The Mavericks are in their 20th year as members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and hold a 111-367-46 (.255) in 524 games played.

Last Time on the Ice: Minnesota State (0-0-0, 0-0-0-0 WCHA) began its 2018-19 season unofficially with a 2-0 exhibition home win over the University of British Columbia on Saturday, Sept. 22nd. The Rensselaer series will be the first official contests of the 2018-19 season for the Mavericks.

The Mavericks skated well against the Thunderbirds, this being their first full action as a team this year. The second period is when Minnesota State took over by scoring two goals. Thirty seconds into the period, senior alternate captain Jordan McLaughlin got the scoring started when she got the puck along the boards and fired a wrist shot beating the goalie. The next goal came on a power play where freshman Brooke Bryant took a shot from the blue line. The puck glanced off an opponents' shin pad and ended up in the back of the net. Freshman Anna Wilgren and McLaughlin collected an assist on the goal.

In net, the Mavericks rotated three goalies with all of them being stellar. Junior Chloe Crosby, senior Katie Bidulka, and freshman Abigail Levy had 24 saves all together. 12 of those saves came in the third period by Levy.

Scouting Rensselaer: The Engineers are coming off of a year where their record was 9-19-6 overall and 6-13-3 in the Eastern College Athletic Association. RPI has been in action once this season in an exhibition against Carleton University where it got the win 3-0.

The Engineers offense features senior Jaimie Grigsby (10-10--20), who was the leading scorer a year ago and tied for the team lead in points. Also returning for RPI is junior Sabrina Repaci (4-10--14) who was second on the team in assists and third in points last season.

In net, Rensselaer features returning senior Lovisa Selander (9-16-5 last season) started in 30 of the 36 games in 2017-18. She held a 2.22 goals against average, .932 save percentage and one shutout throughout the season. 

Facing the Engineers: This will be the first match-up between Minnesota State and Rensselaer in women's hockey.

Looking Ahead: The Mavericks will get the conference season started with an away series against Ohio State. Both games will be in Columbus, Ohio  on Oct. 12th-13th. Friday's game will be a 6:07 p.m., start time and Sunday's game will begin at 1:07 p.m.