After beating St. Thomas last week, we didn't know what the outcome would be regarding national tournament seeding. We found out on Monday that we would end up playing River-Falls in a play-in game a week before the final four. I have to be honest that it was a little disappointing finding out the seeding results because there was a little glimmer of hope that we would host the tournament since we have been ranked #1 in the past few weeks. We were told by our coach that since only two teams from the west would make the top seven this year, it was likely we would have a play-in game because of the money issue. Even with this being said, I couldn't help but hope that all our hard work this season would pay off and we would get the chance to host. Anyway, now that we do have the play-in this week, we have spent a lot of time preparing for that game and getting ready to be at our top level. Hopefully everyone got a lot of sleep last night and is ready to go!

As far as practice went this week, we had a few really tough days on Sunday and Monday. We did quite a bit of skating in practice, but the attitude of everyone was awesome and it was great to see everyone working so hard. Wednesday night we had a film session to watch our regular season River Falls game. We tried to pick up on their strengths and things we could do to work to our advantage. Of course, sitting around in the living room watching the game provided for some good social time, laughing, and getting our hair french braided as we watched the tape. Sounds like a little girl sleepover, I know!

The past two years we have been disappoineted in this play-in game and I am bound and determined not to make this a trend of Gustavus hockey. I think each and every one of our players know what we have to do to make it happen and I am really confident that our team will come out working really hard.

Last night we had a pasta feed at my house. One of our senior parents and a junior parent put it on and it was absolutely delicious. The last time we put on a parent sponsored past feed, we beat River-Falls in the regular season. We are thinking it might be good luck for us, but we'll have to test that theory today.

I am very excited to play today! I actually had a tough time sleeping and I would keep waking up and looking at my alarm clock to see if I could get up yet. Hopefully we'll get some student fans to come over like they did last Wednesday. It's nice to see all that support from your school in such big games. Go GUSTIES! 

 

Last night was quite the exciting night for Gustie hockey. Not only did we have a great 3-0 win in the late afternoon against St. Thomas, but the boys team also took away their championship trophy with a 5-2 win over Hamline.

The rivalry we have with St. Thomas can't really be beat and it felt good to beat them in my final year as a Gustie. They always give us such good games. To be honest, I think much of our success last night is credited to our goaltenders, who have been so steady for us game in and game out.

I was talking to some other players on my team and we agreed that this was the most calm MIAC Championship game we'd ever been a part of. There had been years where we won narrowly by one goal or in overtime. This year it really felt like we played pretty steady throughout the game and were totally confident that we would pull through. When the final buzzer went off, it felt like just another game. We really came together to show that we could handle pressure well and keep our cool. I was pretty proud also to be a member of a group of seniors that had won the MIAC Championship four years in a row. Sharing that with my best friends and teammates was really special.

Two hours after our game ended, most members of our team attended the boys game. That game was probably the most full I have ever seen our Don Roberts Arena. It was a packed house! Watching the boys make a comeback and seal their game was a great way to end our night. There was a lot of Gustie pride throughout the whole hockey community at Gustavus. We were excited that both programs could pull off such great team victories in the same night.

Right now, we are a little uncertain of our future. We know we got an automatic bid with winning the confernce championship, but we don't know who we will play or when that will be yet. Since we are ranked number one in the country it would be really cool to host the end of the season tournament, however our coach warned us that it is not very likely at this point. We still have to wait to see how the east coast conference playoffs go this weekend. 

I have been going crazy with hockey this week. I haven't stopped thinking about it because this time of the season is so fun. I really can't wait for our next game! We got a nice day off today to rest our legs, but we will be practicing throughout the next week in preparation for whatever the tournament throws at us. 

We finally finished up MIAC play against Hamline, the same week we had a tough road game with Point. We ended up tying Stevens Point on their home ice 0-0. There was no scoring if you could believe it! Both goalies played well and though we weren't content with coming home with a tie, we all understood that it was just one game out of many in the season. I actually didn't ride the bus home with my team that night as I had job interviews the next day in Minneapolis. There was a terrible snow storm that same night and on our way back west my mom, dad and I had to get a motel off the freeway and stay until the weather cleared up. My teammates told me they ended up getting home at 4 a.m.! Long night for the Gusties! My interviews went well and it was great to get some practice doing that sort of thing. That practice will definitely come in handy with graduation right around the corner.

We finished out the regular conference season playing Hamline. We actually found out we clinched the conference on Friday night after our first series game against Hamline because St. Thomas had tied that same night. Hamline actually gave us a great game on Saturday and we were glad to end our regular season with a victory.

We have the first seed in the MIAC Playoffs and played St. Olaf in the semi-final on Saturday. We ended up winning the game 5-0 and I think that big win was a confidence booster for us going into the MIAC Championship game. 

We will host the Championship game on Wednesday at 4 p.m. This is kind of a weird time for us to have a game, but because the boys team also plays at home in their MIAC Championship game that same night (at 8), we had to find a way to schedule both games with adequate time between them. We will be playing St. Thomas in the late afternoon and I really look forward to it. Since I work in the sports information department at Gustavus, I learned today that this will be the sixth consecutive time that the St. Thomas and Gustavus women's hockey teams are meeting to play in the championship game. Not only that, but this will be the fourth consecutive year that we have hosted the championship game against the Tommies. We have quite the rivalry going and I have no doubt that Wednesday night will be a very exciting game to play in.

This year our hockey team decided to make up a Relay for Life team, and we will be walking the relay this spring. We are currently raising money for the cause and decided to set up a stand at our games for donations. We were impressed with how generous all of our fans are, not only with supporting our team during the games themselves, but for helping us support a cause like The American Cancer Society. I lost my grandpa to cancer when I was in high school so I think supporting such a cause is really important. It seems so many people are affected by it.

We were able to have Sunday off, but are going back to work on the ice today to prepare for the Tommies. I had an issue with my elbow in the last game, where it got hit at the spot where the nerve was and my whole forearm went numb. Luckily this was at the end of the game. It was pretty swollen afterwards, but thankfully it has gotten ten times better in the day that we had off. Injuries are always a concern especially as we have bigger and better games toward the end of the season. I hope that everyone stays healthy and is able to contribute and we get into these games. 

 

We've had two series since the last time I wrote, which says something about how busy the new semester has kept me. A few of my teammates and I finally got the dreaded LSAT out of the way and that same day we rushed to our game, where we missed most of on-ice warm-ups. Our games against St. Kate's that weekend did not go as well as we had hoped, but we got the sweep nonetheless and that was nothing to complain about. Every weekend is a grind and I guess sometimes you are going to have those close games.

We've started the new semester and I think I am really going to enjoy my classes. It is tough to realize that this is my last semester ever of undergrad. I have had so many wonderful experiences at Gustavus that it is a little unsettling that I have to move on. I am not so much worried about getting a job or anything like that. Instead I think I am more sad that such a fun part of my life is going to end soon. I guess you could say I am not exactly thrilled about becoming a grown-up and take on all those grown-up responsibilities. I think a lot of my peers feel this way as well. It is definitely exciting to start a new part of your life, but I can't help but  feel like I never want college to end.

Last weekend's series against Concordia went so well. After a few tough weekends where we didn't feel we played our absolute best, I feel like all the players, coaches, everyone was on the same page against the Cobbers. We knew what we had to do to get the job done and ended up playing with some grit and determination. It was a nice feeling having everyone get off the ice and feel good about playing hockey again. 

We have a big week this week as we play Stevens Point tonight and finish our conference play with Hamline this weekend. The first time we played Point this year, we tied, but didn't feel we played to our abilities. If we can continue to have the attitude we had against Concordia, I feel that we can play a really good game and come out with a win. We'll have a long bus ride as it is an away game, but hopefully that bus time will help us to get focused for the task at hand.

I am so excited for the end of the season! This is pretty much the time we have all been waiting for and I couldn't think of spending it with a better group of girls. We had a little team meeting yesterday to talk about the opportunities that are there for us this season if we are willing to make that final push. I think everyone seems onboard. For now we have to make sure to give UWSP our best and not overlook Hamline as they are a much improved team.  

The River Falls game went very well. We were excited to beat one of the top teams in the NCHA. Tuesday's game was actually one of our higher scoring games as we scored five times to the Falcons three goals. One of the girls on the River Falls team is my next door neighbor and a high school hockey teammate. It was really nice to see her as we are still pretty good friends. I enjoyed visiting with her and her family after getting out of the locker room Tuesday evening. Even though we were on opposing teams, playing on the same ice as her brought some really good memories back of high school hockey.

The rest of the week followed with two wins against St. Ben's. Their program is improving, but we were able to hold them to two goals the whole weekend. After the sweep we got two days off to rest and recover for the long haul. With the beginning of Feburary, the season will be over in two months and there will be lots of competitive hockey as we finish out conference play and look to the post-season. We are trying not to look forward too much and just go game by game, but I know that we have set our sights pretty high with what we want to accomplish this year.

This Saturday morning I will be taking the LSAT before our 2:00 Saturday game. There is lots of preparation to be done this week for that. Thankfully, our second semester starts next week so I have plenty of time to continue to devote to hockey and studying for the test.

This week marks the last week of J-Term and pretty soon we will be back at it with the regular spring semester class load. This past weekend we had a really strong series against Augsburg. They are ranked at the bottom of our conference so we won the two games pretty handily. Those games were definitely a good break after some really intense games with Stevens Point and St. Thomas. We try to take all of our games seriously, but sometimes it is nice to have a game where we can work hard, but not have the stress of difficult competition. 

We haven't tied so much in a season as we have already this season. Stevens Point left our rink with a tie on Tuesday night, 2-2. We were unhappy with the way we played as our timing seemed off and our legs didn't seem there. However, we were able to answer to both of their goals pretty quickly on our power play so that was a good thing. Stevens Point plays us differently than any other team we play, so it is up to us to be prepared the next time we meet them this season.

Our St. Thomas series was as exciting as it always is. We played them intensely on Friday night, coming away with yet another tie, 1-1. That tie left a bad taste in our mouth and we knew we had to get the job done on Saturday night in order to put us where we wanted to be in conference rankings.

Saturday night seemed to be the same sort of intense match-up with St. Thomas as it always is in our rink. We won that game 1-0 with a great goal by one of our juniors, Laura. She really deserved the goal and definitely earned it and we were all happy for her. With pulling off the victory we came away just one point ahead of St. Thomas in the current conference standing, which is important to us.

After three very tough games last week, we have an extra day off this week. It is a good day to rejuvenate our minds and bodies after some big game emotions and stress. We will be looking forward to Augsburg this weekend to focus back on the little things that make us good.

This January is flying by. Even without having a class I find myself more and more busy with working, LSAT studying, and commitments I've made to hockey in my free time. Tonight I going to try to make a nice meal at my house and enjoy some relaxation time.

This week we've had two days of practice in which we really worked on our systems and special teams. Our focus right now is on Stevens Point. We've had quite the regional rivalry with their team over the time I've been here. Stevens Point is a team that definitely knows how to play against us and works really hard. Tonight I know they will give us a good game.

Since I haven't talked much about what happens on game days, I figured today I'd give a little run through of how a typical game day goes for us in D-III. On the day of the game, we generally get up in the morning and dress up in nicer interview-ish clothing. (We apply the cliche "look good, play good," you see.) Usually we have a normal routine of classes until around 3:30, which is when we have a team meal in the cafeteria. That gives us a good three hours to digest until game time. Typically on our team, many of us eat things like cereal, a bagel, pasta, or a salad. We try not to eat anything that will make us feel full for long.

After meal, we have about an hour and a half of downtime to rest, read, or do whatever. Some people like to go to the rink. I prefer to have alone time to just do my own thing for a while.  We are usually at the rink and dressed for warm-ups around 5:30. We spend some time doing static off-ice stretching and an active warm-up before we actually take on-ice warm-ups. Many times we have a quick information session before we get our equipment on to talk in-depth about the team we are about to play. We go over what to expect from them and remind ourselves of the goals we have for that game. After that, we put on loud music in the locker room and get our equipment on to go out and play.

Apart from hockey, it has been freezing and snowy conditions the first few days of this week. A few of my friends and I took advantage of this and bundled up to go "traying." Gustavus sits atop a hill in St. Peter and overlooks the Minnesota River Valley, which means we have lots of fun sliding hills. Students use the trays from the cafeteria as sleds and take to the hills of Gustavus. My friends and I always like to take advantage of the good snowfalls and hit the hills for some good traying action. The snow was deep last night so we had to take turns creating sledding lanes. After we finished that, we made a nice jump and tried launching ourselves into the air off of the tray. It ended up being quite fun, however cold.

I know my team is so excited for the Point game tonight. This week we were ranked #1 in the country which is sort of surprising as we practically jumped from #6 to #1 overnight. With that being said, we really don't want to worry about rankings because when it's all said and done, rankings aren't the most important thing at this point in the season. We know we just need to keep getting better every game from here on out. And along with that, we also are aware that we need to show up and play to our ability every game because now we have an even bigger target on our back.

The Bethel game ended well for us. As we learned in December, Bethel is a chippy, hard working team that gave us some excellent competition. The last time we played them, we didn't score until the third period, and that is exactly what happened in our game against them on Friday. It was a scoreless game until the third period. We scored twice before they scored in the third, which gave us some momentum. I think the game was sealed once a fellow senior, Jenny, came down and scored on a backhand. The final score was 3-1.

The Bethel game can be a good stepping stone for us when we take on UW-Stevens Point and St. Thomas this week. Bethel plays us hard and I think close games like that make us a better team. We had a little break from hockey this weekend on Saturday, but we'll get back into things today and Monday before we host Stevens Point on Tuesday.

This is a huge week for us. We've been advised to make sure to keep up healthy habits by drinking lots of water, eating the right foods, and getting adequate amounts of sleep each night. I think if we can do this we will be ready for the next week of tough games. As usual, I am really excited for both teams as both have proven to be our biggest rivals throughout the four years that I've been at Gustavus.

This week especially it will be nice that I am not taking a class over J-Term so I can really try to focus and prepare myself for these important upcoming games. We usually have lots of  alumni that come back to watch the conference series against St. Thomas. There is a heated tradition in playing St. Thomas that many players and fans get wrapped up in. I'll be looking forward to the excitement of the rivalry and seeing past teammates and friends when we play the Tommies this weekend. 

 

 

The last time we played Bethel was before Christmas and I think we've come a long way since then. Our first real "home" game played on our campus ice was against Bethel when we tied them 1-1. The next night we beat them 1-0 at their rink. This Friday will we be traveling up to the SuperRink in Blaine once again to play them in a non-conference game. I am looking forward to seeing if we can keep up the intensity that we played with in our upset against Amherst.