The Sacred Heart University women’s club ice hockey team opened their season with a three-game weekend on Sept. 27-29. This marked the third season of women’s ice hockey as an official club sport at the university.
Since their start in the 2021-2022 season, the team has been continuously developing, growing from 14 games in the entire 2022-2023 season to 14 games in the fall semester alone.
“It’s really great, when I was younger, women’s club hockey wasn’t as big,” said sophomore Nicole Partridge. “It’s fun to be a part of that because some teams think we weren’t that good three years ago but then they play us again and I think we’ve gotten a lot better each year.”
The women went 1-2 on their opening weekend with a 3-5 loss to the University of Rhode Island, a 6-7 loss to the University of Connecticut and a 4-2 win over Holy Cross University.
These games were the first played under the new coaching staff of Madison Bakos. Bakos has previous experience in coaching hockey at the high school level and is bringing what she learned from her previous teams to her first collegiate coaching job at SHU.
“It doesn’t seem like [the women] are playing club just to play club,” said Bakos. “I felt that a lot of the players on our team actually want to play.”
This weekend was Bakos’ first time coaching in the newly built Martire Family Area, and it was the team’s second full season calling the arena home. Sophomore and assistant captain Michelle McCabe believes it is a privilege to be able to have their games there.
“Playing there is honestly so incredible and I can’t believe I’m fortunate enough to play there,” said McCabe. “The environment is just amazing no matter what time of day, who’s there or what’s happening.”
Going forward with the rest of the season, the women have goals set in place, with one already in progress to be achieved.
“One of their team goals is to have a three game winning streak at minimum,” said Bakos. “It does help that we ended on a win, hopefully they continue to win off of that.”
The team will have a chance to continue to reach their goal of a three game win streak, as the prepare to play against Boston College on Friday, Oct. 18, Assumption University on Saturday, Oct. 19 and Merrimack College on Sunday, Oct. 20.