No. 3 nationally-ranked Colgate University will highlight the third-annual ‘Battle at the Burgh’ women’s college hockey tournament, held December 29-30 at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
Colgate will be joined by local Robert Morris University, as well as the University of Maine and Bemidji State University.
The tournament will open with two games on Friday, December 29 – Colgate taking on Maine at 4:00 PM, and Robert Morris meeting Bemidji State at 7:00 PM. The consolation and championship games will be played on Saturday, December 30 at 2:00 PM and 5:00 PM, respectively.
Tickets for the tournament may be purchased online here. All seats are general admission.
Colgate (7-1-0) is led by forward Kristyna Kaltounkova, who ranks sixth in the nation in goals (8) and points (16). Also representing Colgate are defensemen Avery Pickering and Ava Svejkovsky, sisters of Penguins prospects Owen Pickering and Lukas Svejkovsky.
Robert Morris’ (4-6-0) women’s hockey program is back for its first Division I season since 2020-21. This marks the Colonials second appearance in the ‘Battle at the Burgh’, originally appearing in the inaugural tournament in 2020. Maine, currently 3-5-0, is led by leading scorer Ida Kuoppala, who ranks fourth in the nation with nine goals. Bemidji State has gone 0-9-1 this season, and is backstopped by Western Collegiate Hockey Association Goaltender of the Week (Oct. 23), Abbie Thompson.
Colgate and Robert Morris each have alums of the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite program on their teams - Kaitlyn O’Donohoe from Colgate, as well as Kaitlyn Schooley and Liviya Rubin on Robert Morris.
In conjunction with the NCAA tournament, the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex will also be hosting a 14U Girls Invitational featuring Pittsburgh Penguins Elite, Little Caesars, Florida Alliance and the Bluewater Hawks.
