Tyler Stauffer: Mercyhurst College junior Vicki Bendus skates past a Bemidji State University defender in women’s hockey’s 6-1 victory Saturday.
The Mercyhurst College women’s hockey team began the season with a sweep of Bemidji State University, leading the Lakers to become the top-ranked team in the nation in the USA today/USA Women’s Hockey Magazine College Poll and US College Hockey Online Top-10 Women’s Hockey Poll.

The Lakers started off slow in both games, but junior Vicki Bendus sparked the Lakers with her strong play throughout the weekend.
Friday’s 4-1 victory started with a scoreless first period, but it picked up considerably after that.

The Lakers scored four goals in the second period with goals from junior Cassea Schols at 6:10, Bendus at 8:49, sophomore Kelley Steadman at 11:47 and sophomore Jess Jones at 18:32.

Bemidji scored late in the third period to break up the shut-out with only 55 seconds left in the game.
In Saturday’s 6-1 victory the Lakers’ offensively got rolling much quicker.

Tyler Stauffer: Mercyhurst College junior Jesse Scanzano looks for the puck in the Lakers’ 6-1 victory over Bemidji State University Saturday.Two goals came in the first period, scored by junior Jesse Scanzano and sophomore Bailey Bram.

In the second, Bendus scored the third goal of the day at 7:48, and junior Ashley Cockell added another goal at 10:55.

Bendus scored again as she was falling down at 12:27, and Cockell added the last score at 16:17 to finish off the second.

Bemidji State scored on a power play goal with 3:37 left in the game.

Bendus scored three of the team’s 10 goals, keying the Lakers’ offense and also earned College Hockey America player of the week honors in the process.

Despite her impressive performance, Bendus shifted most of the credit for her performance to her teammates.

“There was a little extra excitement because it was our home opener, and we wanted to start the season off well. A lot of my teammates had great weekends, which made it easier for me to play well,” Bendus said.

Next weekend, the women are off, but they get back to business at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute on Friday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 17 at 3 p.m.