The first full weekend of women’s hockey out west since the long winter break was a success, a player joined the 100-point club and there were no upsets occurring this weekend. Some teams were eased back into their playing groove as they opened up the second half with some statistically easier games compared to others who were thrown into the fire with tough matchups to start.
Sophie Rausch joins the 100 Point Club!
Sophie Rausch, a senior forward for UW-Eau Claire joined the 100-point club in the Blugolds win over St. Norbert College on Saturday, January 7. Rausch, who had played her previous three years of college hockey at Hamline University, had two goals in the Saturday victory and is well on her way to having her highest career point total for a season. Currently, she has 28 points (19 goals, 9 assists) through 14 games, her previous season-high at Hamline was 35 points (15 goals, 20 assists) during her freshman campaign. She also had 34 points her junior year at Hamline, consistency is a good trait to have, and she’s had that every year of her college hockey career.
Funny enough, via UW-Eau Claire Head Coach Erik Strand’s tweet on Sunday congratulating his player. He made mention that it was also Sophie’s birthday on Saturday in the win. A nice added touch to the team’s victory and her own personal milestone.
In regard to the game’s that took place for Eau Claire this past weekend, the Blugolds split the two-game series with a tough St. Norbert team who’s fighting atop the NCHA standings, coming off a year where they fell to Aurora in the league title game. While both games were played at St. Norbert, the Green Knights took game one 2-1 and Eau Claire won game two 4-2. The point leaders of the weekend: Sophie Rausch & Hallie Sheridan with 4 points apiece for UWEC, while Natalie Hogan tallied 3 points for SNC. Goaltender Brynn Waisman of SNC had 45 saves in the two games, while Stephanie Martin of UWEC had 22.
As the season progresses, Eau Claire will need to string together a lot of wins without many bumps in the road as their at-large bid hopes rely on them putting up a huge number in the win column with the WIAC lacking a conference championship auto-bid. Their biggest games are actually their last two regular-season games, a home/away series with a familiar WIAC rival #2 UW-River Falls on February 17/18.
Adrian sweeps a conference leader from out East
#4 Adrian swept Suffolk University, defeating them 3-0 & 3-1. The Bulldogs now move to 12-1-0 on the season. The point leaders for the weekend on Adrian were Karmen Anderson with 3 (2 goals, 1 assist), while three players recorded two points, Maya Roy, Reaghan Pietrowski & Kathryn Truban. Goaltender Sophie Goldberg recorded a 30-save shutout victory and a 29 save victory to go along with it. Outside of #2 UW-River Falls, Adrian has arguably the best résumé of any team out west in terms of strength-of-schedule and the number of ranked opponents they’ve faced. Say what you want about Suffolk, but for those of you who may not be familiar with them, they’re currently nearing pace for their best season as a program and lead the CCC standings.
UW-River Falls riding their momentum
UW-River Falls swept Concordia (Minn.), winning 4-0 & 9-2 convincingly. These were the first games for the Falcons since their massive two-game series with #1 Gustavus in which they fell 2-0 in game one but won game two 3-0. In their latest games vs Concordia, the weekend point leaders were: Bailey Olson (5 points, 1 goal, 4 assists), Megan Goodreau (5 points, 2 goals, 3 assists), & Maddie McCollins (5 points, 2 goals, 3 assists).
UW-River Falls has a busy week as they face St. Scholastica at home on Tuesday 1/10 (today), then a two-game road series against UW-Stevens Point on Friday/Saturday 1/13-1/14.
Other Notable Results
#11 Aurora defeated Northland convincingly 9-0 & 4-0.
Lake Forest tied Castleton 2-2, fell to #8 Middlebury 4-0, and defeated Saint Michaels 1-0.
Marian defeated Nichols 2-1 & Bethel 4-1.
Concordia (Wis.) defeated Bethel 4-3 in OT & lost to Nichols 4-1
UW-Stevens Point defeated Hamline 1-0 & lost to Saint Mary’s 2-1 in OT.
UW-Superior shutout Finlandia 7-0 & 11-0.
Looking forward to another week of D-III Women’s hockey out west as we enter the final few months to determine who’s going to be with us until the end in the NCAA tournament!
