By Tyler Browne
@T_Browne1124
The Springfield College women’s hockey team fell to Norwich, 6-2, in the final game of their inaugural season. The two teams previously met on Nov. 11, when the Pride also lost by the same score. With the loss, the Pride completed its season with a 7-5 record.
“It was a great season for us. We’re going to fall short in our goal of [reaching the] playoffs, which is disappointing, but to come in as a first year team and have seven wins is phenomenal,” said team manager Jamie Peck.
Norwich’s first goal came just five minutes into the game, when Emma Theriut scored on an assist from Caitlin Heale. Heale scored a goal of her own eight minutes later, and Theriut scored for a second time with 40 seconds remaining in the period.
Norwich nearly scored multiple times in the first period, but excellent goalkeeping from Amanda Hanley held them to just three goals in the period.
With just under a minute left to play in the first period, Rachael Curtis scored the Pride’s first goal, with an assist from Kyra Ashe.
The Pride’s second and final goal of the night came from Nicole Sedler, who scored an unassisted goal three minutes into the second period.
Norwich’s Karen Hudson scored just twenty seconds after Sedler, and scored two more goal before the game was over.
“I think we played hard, we did our best, the best we could, Norwich is a great team, and we gave it our all,” said Julia Rodrigues.
Today’s game was also the Pride’s senior night, and seniors Rodrigues and Colleen Myers were honored before the puck dropped.
“This was my first year playing [hockey] and it’s been an absolutely incredible experience with the team, learning how to play this year. I’m going to miss it a lot,” said Rodrigues.
“[Julia and Colleen] were a huge part of this team. Even though they didn’t have the biggest numbers in the stat sheet, they were a huge presence in the locker room and they were a big part of building the culture that our team had,” said Peck.
Rodrigues said that playing this year fulfilled a longtime desire for her.
“Honestly, every practice, every game was amazing. [Playing hockey] was something I always wanted to do.”
Although the team ultimately came up short, Peck is still proud of how they played this year.
“We beat some good teams along the way. We’re still the only team to beat Union as of now, which we’re very proud of. And I think we’re all very proud of the way we fought this year and the way we played and how well we came together as a team. It was a great year for us.”
The Pride will look to find more depth going into their second-ever season,
“I think we need to start our recruiting this year. We didn’t really recruit as much last year. We need to just get a solid foundation and get some good practices at the beginning of the year,” said Peck.
Photo courtesy of Jack Margaros