Pittsburgh, Pa. - On Friday the Cougars (1-8-1) started their final set of games in 2024. They hosted the Hilbert Hawks (0-8) in game one of a home and home double header. The Cougars won their first game of the season winning 10-1.

In the first period the Cougars offense shone as they quickly built a 5-0 lead headed into the locker room after the first. Rainey Jessup got the scoring started when she scored the first goal of the game assisted by Sophia Taylor and Avelyn Higgins just over a minute into the game. Samantha Barrett then scored on the Alyssa Tansek assist less than two minutes later. Just over four minutes into the game Liv McTavish scored on the assist from Avelyn Higgins and Abbigail Cunkelman. Anabel Lota scored her first career goal 14-and-a-half minutes into the period assisted by Kylie Shannon and Samantha Barret. Lota would score again four minutes later on the assets from Isabella Allsopp and Payton Lloyd.

In the second period the Cougar offense was unable to find the back of the net and Hilbert netted their only goal of the game on the power play nearly 15 minutes into the period. Lindsey Batz saved six shots on goal in the period and had eight to that point in the game.

In the third period the Cougars offense scored another five goals. It started when Hailey Braaten scored her first career goal less than a minute into the third period. She was assisted by Chelsea Clark. Clark would score a goal of her own four minutes later assisted by Kylie Shannon and Isabella Allsopp. Rainey Jessup scored her second goal of the night eleven minutes into the final frame while on the penalty kill.  She was assisted by Payton Lloyd and Morgan Black. Anabel Lota completed the hat trick in the third period when she scored on the assist from Isabella Allsopp with three and a half minutes to play in the game. The final goal was scored by Yana Samoulidis for her first career goal unassisted.

Batz made 16 saves on 17 attempts for a 94.1% save rate. Offensively the Cougars had both Lota and Allsopp record three points, three goals for Lota and three assists for Allsopp. Defensively both Barrett and Kylie Shannon had two blocks. The Cougars will be back in action when they travel for game two of the set on Saturday to take on Hilbert in Hamburg, N.Y. for a 2 PM puck drop.