Women’s ice hockey starts of the season with wins

By Aaron Heller //

Hood College women’s ice hockey opened up its inaugural season with a two-game sweep over Hilbert College.

Emotions ran high as the Hood College community piled into the rink repping blue and white.

The men’s lacrosse players dressed in costumes, started chants and did everything they could to distract the other team.

The Blazers won the first game 3-2. Goals were scored by Astrid Wilbur, Sofie Ancona and Caroline Kittell.

The second game was a nail-biter for both the fans and players.

The Blazers had a 3-1 lead heading into the third period, but Hilbert College battled back, causing the game to go to overtime.

One minute into overtime, Ancona found the top left corner of the net, helping lead her team to a 4-3 victory.

“Winning in college is hard, and sweeping is even harder,” head coach Josh Funk said. “To have a team of all freshmen go out and get a sweep in week one is incredible and with all of the emotions of the weekend mixed in, to win not only one but two games is a really exciting feeling knowing that we have more to give the rest of the season.”

The rink was full of Blazer Nation fans cheering on the Blazers through both 60-minute games.

“To have the entire arena filled on Friday with standing room only and with fans banging on the glass, it was a really fun environment for our players,” Funk said. “The fans this weekend were awesome.”

“If I had to list the team emotion after both games, I would say ecstatic and relieved. Ecstatic because of all of the history that we made, and also relief in knowing that we can do this,” Funk said.

The Blazer fanbase left both games wanting more of Blazer hockey.

“The Hood community should expect more of the same,” Funk said. “Now that we know we can win, it’s important that that becomes our standard because we encountered a lot of different scenarios and situations this weekend such as playing with the lead, we gave up the lead, we battled back in, and we faced overtime so we can take a lot out of this weekend. And we will build off of it to continue to grow.”