TROY, N.Y. - In the 2009-10 regular season opener, the Wayne State University women's hockey team (0-1-0) made a late rally but fell short, 3-2, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1-0-0) on Friday night at the Houston Field House.

A pair of freshmen - Julie Hebert and Gina Buquet - lit the lamp in the third period for the Warriors, who are 2-8-1 all-time in season openers.

RPI's Whitney Naslund contributed on all three goals for the home squad, assisting on the first two before netting a power-play goal late in the second period.

The two sides were scoreless until 14:18 of the middle stanza, when a power-play tally by Laura Gersten gave the Engineers a 1-0 lead.  RPI doubled its advantage three minutes later on a short-handed goal from Alisa Harrison.

Naslund's marker at 19:14 put the Engineers ahead by three heading into the final period.

Hebert put Wayne State on the board at 3:17.  A short-handed goal by Buquet, poking in a rebound off a shot from Katrina Protopapas, with 2:41 remaining pulled Wayne State within one, but the Warriors were unable to net the equalizer despite pulling goaltender Lindsey Park for an extra attacker in the waning seconds.

Shots on goal favored RPI, 35-25.  Park and Sonja van der Bliek finished with 32 and 23 saves, respectively.

Wayne State and Rensselaer will meet in the series finale Saturday afternoon at 3:00 ET.