By Mike Voltaggio, Staff Writer
The LIU women’s hockey team has gotten their 2024-25 season off to a hot start with a 2-1-1 record in NEWHA conference play, as they look to replicate the success they had in 2023-24. Last season, they compiled a conference record of 26-2 with a 93% overall winning percentage on their way to winning the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) conference regular season championship.
Senior and captain defenseman Bri Eid shared her takeaways from the 2023-24 season and reflected on her team’s success.
“I think we had an excellent season… We finished in first place in the NEWHA. We had a record-breaking season and finished with the most wins as a program in LIU history, so we did really well. It was just an unfortunate way to end the season having been knocked out in the semi-finals of the conference playoffs,” she said.
The loss Eid alluded to came at the hands of Franklin Pierce in the NEWHA semi-finals, when they were upset 3-4 in a heartbreaking overtime loss to end last season. Looking to avoid a similar fate, the Sharks enter their 2024-2025 campaign ranked as the number one team in the entirety of the NEWHA conference.
Sophomore forward Alexa Degan spoke on what to expect from the Sharks this upcoming year.
“The expectation really hasn’t changed much from that of previous years. We went into every game and still go into every game giving our 100 percent in everything that we do in preparation for our opponents,” Degan said. “We go into lift, practice, games, film sessions, giving our 100 percent and devoting our undivided attention to the task at hand so that way we can come out with wins on the back end.”
Eid shared her thoughts.
“Obviously the goal is to definitely hoist a trophy at the end of the season when it is all said and done, but that is a long-term goal which is obviously important. I also think little, short-term goals are equally as important. Right now we are trying to focus on scoring more goals and putting games away early and altogether just sticking to our game plan and trusting each other,” Eid said.
Although LIU comes into the 2024-25 season with a similar roster as last year, one of the biggest changes to this Sharks team is the loss of their standout goaltender Tindra Holm to the transfer portal. Holm was a key piece to the Sharks’ success in 2023-24 accounting for just under 1000 saves throughout the season with a 95% save percentage and winning NEWHA goaltender of the year back-to-back seasons.
With big shoes to fill, Eid, who also co-hosted a podcast with Holm, “The Box Duo,” shared how the team is adjusting to the change of scenery in the net as well as how the team is gelling with the new incoming freshman class.
“Honestly it’s been great,” Eid said. “It has been a seamless transition. The freshmen have done a great job contributing and I think they gel great with the rest of the team. Although Tindra was a big part of our team and our success, we have a lot of talent in terms of goalkeepers this season. Clara Kammholz who played in a few games last year is back and she is doing a great job. Abbie Thompson who transferred in this year adds some depth to the goaltender position.”
Although the Sharks lost a star coming into this season, Eid shared what players to look out for and who is going to make a big impact for the Sharks moving forward.
“I think Crosby [Wildfong] and Drew [Dyczkowski] are going to be a pretty cool duo to look out for, them together on offense will be fun to watch. They’re both true freshmen and both are really hard workers, grinders and just overall smart hockey players. Then there is [Kristen] Kiggen on defense, another true freshman, who is also exciting to watch. I think she’ll have an awesome college career and then along with that, there is also Peyton [O’Neill], another defenseman who just works hard, hits hard, shoots hard, everything you could want in a defenseman so they have been some great additions to the team. Then we also of course have some great returning players such as Wallner, Rourke, Marrow, and the list goes on and on. We just have an altogether solid roster across the board,” she said.
However, it isn’t just the players that make this team great. LIU Women’s Hockey also has one of the best coaching staffs in the entire NEWHA conference with Head Coach Kelly Nash leading the charge. Nash was named 2024 NEWHA Coach of the Year and according to Degan, Nash is one of the main reasons why this team is able to have so much success.
“Coach Nash is amazing,” says Degan. “The belief and determination that Coach Nash has in us all not only individually but also as a collective unit is what truly helps us with our successes. She keeps us on our toes and ready for any obstacles that might come our way.”
Although a coach’s leadership and wisdom are important when trying to become a champion, leadership amongst the teammates themselves is equally as important. Eid was named a captain of the LIU women’s hockey team for the second year in a row and she shared what it means to be selected as a captain of such a skilled and storied program and how the responsibility changes from year to year.
“I don’t think it changes much from last season, it might be a little bit more responsibility, but I always try to just be myself and be someone that my teammates can go to. I always try to keep things light and uplifting. I always try to crack jokes from time to time but I also know when it’s time to be serious when it comes down to it,” she said. “The main thing for me is just to be a good person and be someone who people can come to and look up to. It’s always an honor to be selected captain and to know that your team believes in you enough to have you lead them, especially in tough games.”
The Sharks opened their conference play splitting a two-game series with the Stonehill Skyhawks; winning the first game in a 2-0 shutout victory and dropping the second game 3-2 in regulation.
With their opening conference games behind them, Eid shared her thoughts on how she thinks the execution has been so far to start the season.
“Of course, we were looking for the sweep,” Eid states. “Although I truthfully think that this was a blessing in disguise. Last year it seems like we couldn’t lose until the very end of our season. It might be a weird thing to say but maybe a loss at the beginning of the year is kind of a good thing to really help us open our eyes and realize that in that second game of the series we had the opportunity to win but we struggled to put pucks in the net so I think that game really helped us to learn from our mistakes,” she said.
After that two-game series away from home, the Sharks would have their home opening two-game series against the Assumption Great Danes where they would once again start the series hot with a 3-2 win in game one, and then LIU would put together a strong third period in game two to end the series with a 1-1 tie to bring their NEWHA conference record to 2-1-1.
Although the Sharks may not have started their conference games this season in the same fashion that they did the previous year, Degan stated that the team has their eyes on the prize and the goal is the same regardless of how the season starts.
“Our goal like every year is to win the NEWHA, but along with that we also try to win every conference game, every out-of-conference game and just win every kind of challenge that comes our way,” she said. “That goal never changes regardless of what happens from game to game, week to week so even though we dropped a few games already this season we use those as opportunities to grow and get better moving forward because every game win or lose is a lesson and we try to take those lessons and learn from them over time.”
The Sharks take a two-week hiatus before their next two-game series against the Sacred Heart Pioneers on Friday, Nov. 1 where LIU will be looking to continue to dominate the NEWHA conference in search of another NEWHA regular season title.
The quoted material contained in this article was courtesy of the Friday LIU Athletics edition of 88.1 FM WCWP’s “Sports Shark Tank,” with the original episode airing on Oct. 18, 2024. “Sports Shark Tank” airs Monday through Friday from 5:00-6:00 p.m. on 88.1 FM, WCWP.org, and streaming on the WCWP mobile app.
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