Merry Christmas everyone! Today, we look back on the first semester of play from the east as we await the start of the second-half of the season in late December on New Year’s Eve. Many teams and players had successful first halves from the eastern half of women’s hockey, but these are the main ones who stood out.
First Half Winners
To start off our first half winners list, we have to give it to Plattsburgh who began the year with a preseason ranking of #3 and now currently sit in the #3 spot with an 11-2-0 record. Besides falling to Cortland 1-0 (which was the first time Plattsburgh had been shutout since 11/04/2018 vs Adrian 1-0), the Cardinals have taken care of business and their other one-goal loss (3-2) to current #2 UW-River Falls is nothing to be discouraged about. Currently, Plattsburgh has played six ranked opponents (at the time of the game) and won all but one: #9 Norwich 5-4 OT, #4 Elmira 7-0, #15 Oswego 3-2, #8 Elmira 3-2 OT, and #3 Adrian 1-0, their only ranked-loss was to #6 UW-River Falls by a score of 2-3. Seeing this, it’s hard to say anyone other than Plattsburgh out east has been more impressive after one semester of hockey.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Cardinals fare once they open up the second half of the season as they are tested once again, visiting #8 Middlebury who’s had a rough start to the season, but can’t be overlooked. They then have a two game home series three days later vs #15 Oswego State.
Our second winner has to be Amherst and they’ve come on to the scene similar to Adrian out west in terms of their preseason ranking and their current ranking. They began the season ranked at #10 and as with all NESCAC teams, we didn’t see any action from them until late November unlike the rest of the D-III hockey world. They now sit at #5 in the USCHO poll with a 7-1-0 record after pulling off some huge wins early. They split a weekend series with (at the time) #15 Hamilton and they haven’t lost since. Their most notable wins coming against (at the time) #3 Middlebury, defeating them 4-2 both days and seemingly dominating them on the stat-sheet.
Amherst has been the biggest surprise of any team this year, yes I know that can be odd to say considering they began the year ranked in the top-10, but there aren’t many people besides Amherst fans (and they would be lying) that would’ve picked them to sweep Middlebury and put them on a three-game losing streak for the first time in a long time. Interesting to see how they fare the rest of the way in the highly-competitive NESCAC conference.
My final east team I’ll give a winners spot to this first semester is going to be a wildcard, I’m giving it to Norwich, and not the pick everyone may expect in Colby. Here’s the reasoning: Colby has a perfect 8-0-0 record and is ranked #6, however, they’ve played teams with a combined record of 32-37-1 including three wins over a single opponent in Bowdoin, they also haven’t faced a ranked opponent thus far. They will be tested come the second semester as they open up with #13 Hamilton and #8 Middlebury, but at the moment, I can’t give them more credit than Norwich based on the two résumé’s.
Focusing on my winner in Norwich, they’ve faced (at the time of game) four ranked opponents and fared decently against them, going 2-2, but keeping each one close. They defeated #9 Endicott 5-2 & shutout #8 Elmira 6-0, but fell to #3 Plattsburgh 4-5 in the final seconds and 3-4 to #3 Adrian. They’ve been solid thus far and are looking to make-up for last year’s disappointing season to their normal standards. They seem to be on the right track so far, look for the Cadets to make an NEHC title run this season and hunt for the automatic NCAA tournament bid where they could definitely win a few games.
Standout Players *all stats via USCHO*
Many players have stood out so far this season, in terms of forwards, some players have loaded up points on the stat-sheet. Forwards who’ve stood out so far:
Ann-Frederique Guay, a senior at Norwich University, currently through 11 games has 22 points (6 goals, 16 assists) to lead the east (third nationally). This includes 1 GWG (game-winning-goal) and 2 powerplay goals. She’s been fairly consistent, tallying 4 points on four separate occasions.
Kaylee Merrill, a senior at SUNY Potsdam, currently through 14 games has 20 points (14 goals, 6 assists) (tied third nationally for goals) comes in second in points out east. Her best game was on 11/25/22 vs Kings College where she had a pair of goals and assists for 4 total points in the 9-0 victory.
Gabrielle Cox, a senior at Manhattanville College, who transferred after her sophomore year from Mercyhurst University (NCAA D1), currently has 18 points through 11 games (14 goals, 4 assists) (tied third nationally for goals). What makes her season standout is the fact she had racked up 12 goals and 3 assists in the first four games of the season. Even though she’s had a quiet stretch as of late, look for her to make an impact for the Valiants the rest of the way as she’s shown she can put up huge numbers quickly.
I talked about how grading/ranking defenseman in terms of the stat-sheet isn’t always a true representation of the best defenseman in my west analysis, but for the sake of this analysis and the fact I’m unable to see every defenseman play live, here are the defenseman out east who stood out the most based on their stat-sheet:
Sierra Benjamin, a graduate-senior at Plattsburgh State has separated herself from the rest so far, recording 15 points through 10 games (2 goals, 13 assists). The senior defenseman is well on her way to her best statistical season of her lengthy Plattsburgh career as she only needs 7 more to tie her previous season-high of 22.
Mattie Norton, a sophomore at Plattsburgh State, currently has 13 points through 13 games (3 goals, 10 assists).
Julia Holmes, a junior at Nazareth, currently has 13 points through 11 games (4 goals, 9 assists).
We’re now at the position known as the last line of defense besides the goalpost, here are the goaltenders who’ve stood out the most after one semester:
Rei Halloran, a senior at Wesleyan University, all the way from Tokyo, Japan, takes the top spot in first half of goaltending-winners. She’s got a 6-1-1 record, a .965 save-percentage, and 3 shutouts. Currently she’s a name not many may know since Wesleyan finds themselves outside the top-15 with a 6-1-1 overall record. She’s having her best statistical season of her college career so far.
Lilla Nease, a senior at Plattsburgh State, holds a 10-2-0 record (tied for most nationally), a .935 save-percentage, and 2 shutouts.
Angela Hawthorne, a junior at Utica University, holds a 7-1-1 record, a .958 save-percentage, and 2 shutouts.
Leonie Kuehberger, a sophomore at Elmira College, holds an 8-3-0 record, a .929 save-percentage, and 4 shutouts.
Paige Bolyard, a sophomore at Colby College, is currently 5-0-0, a .951 save-percentage, and 1 shutout.
We look ahead now to the second half of the season, as I said in my first half west analysis article, the first semester of play went very fast unless you’re a sore and tired player who’s currently recovering. It should be an interesting second half and it’s almost here with some east teams returning to play December 31st on New Year’s Eve!
