ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Mercyhurst University women's hockey team completed a weekend sweep of College Hockey America (CHA)-rival Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) on Saturday afternoon with a 3-0 whitewash of the Tigers at the new Gene Polisseni Center. The Lakers (20-7-3 overall, 11-4-1 CHA), aided by Lindenwood's 4-2 decision over second-place Penn State on Saturday, now have a three-point lead in the conference in the chase for the regular season crown. The last-place Tigers fell to 10-17-3 and 4-11-1 respectively.

It was Mercyhurst's eighth shutout victory of the season but the first since November 26 against Colgate. The weekend sweep was the first time the Lakers won back-to-back contests since a two-game sweep of visiting Lindenwood on December 5 and 6. The win was also the 20th of the season for the Lakers - the 15th time in 16 seasons that Mercyhurst has reached the plateau. The only time the Lakers did not win 20 was the program's second year of existence (2000-01; 14-16-3).

Mercyhurst's leading scorer Emily Janiga collected the only goal junior netminder Julia DiTondo would need when she cashed her 23rd of the season, unassisted, at 3:47 of the first. Sophomore defender Paige Horton doubled the lead later in the period when she scored her second of the year, from freshman Sarah Robello and junior Jillian Skinner, with the Lakers up a skater at 9:41. The Lakers outshot the Tigers 15-9 in the opening twenty minutes.

It was Horton's first goal since October 4. Both of the sophomore defender's goals this season have come on the power play.

Neither team scored in a defensive second period, one which saw Mercyhurst have a slight 8-7 advantage in shots.

Janiga finished RIT, and the scoring, when she notched her second of the game and 24th of the year into an empty RIT net with 68 seconds left in the contest. Junior Jenna Dingeldein and senior Molly Byrne helped. It marked the first time this season that Janiga, who also scored twice in Friday's victory, put successive multiple-goal games together. She now has a dozen multiple-point games and six multiple-goal contests.

Mercyhurst had a 10-4 shot advantage in the third and a 33-20 margin for the full sixty minutes. Mercyhurst finished 1-for-4 on the power play and blanked RIT in six chances.

DiTondo (2-0-0) started back-to-back games for the first time in her career and stopped 36 of 37 RIT shots in the two games. The 20-save performance on Saturday proved to be the junior's second career shutout - her first came on December 7, 2013 when she blanked Penn State, 8-0, at the Mercyhurst Ice Center. The Lakers, meanwhile, beat long-time nemesis, senior Ali Binnington (7-9-1), for the second straight game.

The Lakers won all four regular season games against the Tigers and outscored them 16-3. They now lead the all-time series 11-2-0 and are 5-1-0 in Rochester.

Mercyhurst will entertain second-place Penn State next Friday and Saturday at 3:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. On Saturday, the Lakers will honor four seniors - Shelby Bram, Molly Byrne, Caroline Luczak, and Amanda Makela - prior to the opening faceoff. The Nittany Lions swept the Lakers 2-1 and 5-3 December 12 and 13 in State College.