EDWARDSVILLE – Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) broke open a tie game with under ten minutes remaining to escape with a 2-1 victory over Wilkes University Saturday afternoon in non-conference action at Schmidt Stadium.
 
Wilkes suffered its first defeat of the 2019 season moving to 1-1-1 overall on the year. RIT improved to 2-1 on the young season following the road win.
 
The teams went scoreless through the first 39 minutes of the first half with Wilkes' Kiele Riefenstahl (Hellertown, PA/Saucon Valley) having the best Colonel chance after she drilled a shot off the crossbar in the eighth minute.
 
Abbey Saia put RIT on the board first when she ripped a shot from the right corner into the goal at the 39:25 mark as the Tigers took a 1-0 advantage into the break.
 
Emily Bidelspach (Myerstown, PA/ELCO) tied the game for Wilkes early in the second half when she connected on a ball from 20-yards out beating the Tiger goalie to the right side at the 58:28 mark.
 
From there RIT's Kayla Grossman took a pass from Piper Zimmerman and found the back of the next after the ball was deflected by a Wilkes defender at the goal line in the 81^st minute.
 
RIT held a slight 12-8 shot advantage while garnering eight corner kicks to Wilkes' one attempt.
 
Samantha Cecere (Batavia, NY/Batavia) finished with four saves in net for the Colonels.
 
Wilkes is back at home Wednesday hosting William Patterson University at 7:00 p.m. at Schmidt Stadium on "Send it to a Soldier" game.