(photo courtesy of SPX Sports)
SAINT PETER, Minn. – A season removed from its 13th NCAA Tournament appearance, the Gustavus women’s hockey team will look to a lot of new faces, as well as some key returners, to defend its MIAC championship.
Last season, the Gusties tied Hamline for the MIAC regular season championship and then fell in the playoff title game to the Pipers, before receiving an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. At the national tournament the Gusties competed in the longest game in Division III history when they battled with UW-Eau Claire in a four-hour contest that saw the Gusties fall 3-2 in triple overtime.
In the MIAC Preseason Coaches poll, the Gusties are tied at the top with St. Thomas with 72 points, while defending MIAC champion Hamline came in third with 70 points.
“The good thing about the poll is that it’s the coaches opinions, so the peers in the league think that you have a chance to have some success,” said head coach Mike Carroll. “All the poll is though is a projection, and our team knows that we can’t just show up because we certainly have a lot of work to do. What happened last year is a nice notch for the girls who are back, but it’s still just a preseason poll.”
This year’s Gusties will have a much different look than last season’s team as they lost their top three point scorers and bring in 11 first-year players. The Gusties will be relying on experience between the pipes, as well as a few key returning skaters to help lead the team.
“Besides the fact that we lost a lot of scoring, we lost two of our captains in Diana Draayer and Erica Power and a really emotional leader in Kaitlyn Klein; we lost a lot of glue but our new leaders are doing a great job so we’re really encouraged,” Carroll said.
The three Gustie captains this season are Amelia Vosen (Jr., Nowthen, Minn.), Kristen Cash (Jr., Roseville, Minn.), and Allie Stanger (Sr., Paynesville, Minn.).
When asked about the message to his players with so many new faces coach Carroll said, “You don’t talk about it too much with the players because each year has its own identity and being a coach you know that one year can be completely different than the year before. Obviously we lost a lot of points, but there is opportunity there for a lot of the others to step up.”
The Gusties remain solid in net this season as they return two-time All-American goalie Amanda DiNella (Sr., Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.) for her senior campaign with the team. Cash and Vosen are the top two returners for the Gusties as Cash netted five goals and tallied 14 assists while Vosen scored 11 goals and dished out six assists.
“Any team that has good goaltending has a little bit of confidence that they don’t have to play picture perfect and they can make mistakes,” said Carroll. “Having self-confidence in your own game is one thing but knowing that the back end is pretty consistent can really help you play free and easy.”
The Gusties will travel Saturday for a contest with UW-Superior at 2 p.m.
On the team’s readiness for the contest coach Carroll said, “We’ve had two scrimmages so everyone kind of knows what to expect. You can talk all day about it and try to prepare them but until they go through it and experience it, that’s when they start to learn from it.”