For six seasons, the Anna Maria College hockey team has played among the independent teams against D-II and D-III teams without an opportunity to win a conference title and very limited visibility on a national level. This season as a new member of the MASCAC conference, there is so much to play for and the AmCats are relishing the opportunity to play important games each and every game this season.
“This is a great thing for our program,” stated head coach David McCauley. “For the first time we actually have a standings board in our locker room at our home rink that we can measure our performance solely based on our results against teams we want see ourselves higher in the standings. Having a chance to play for a conference championship and possibly earn a bid to the national tournament is what every coach wants for his program. It took us awhile to get here but we are very excited about the opportunity to showcase our program and compete in the MASCAC.”
The AmCats join the 10-team league along with Rivier from the Independent ranks knowing that they have had success on the ice against several of the conference incumbents including the repeat defending champions from Plymouth State.
“We have played well against Plymouth State the past couple of seasons winning non-conference games against them,” noted McCauley. “Stakes are different this year knowing we are playing them and all the other teams two times with a chance of seeing teams a third time in the playoffs. All I know is you need to win the last one if you want any shot of sitting atop the conference. The league has great balance and historically strong programs like Fitchburg State, Massachusetts-Dartmouth and Westfield State but we all know in D-III any team can win on any night if your team doesn’t show up to play so it will be a different challenge getting our team to play all our games with the intensity needed because they all count in the standings. Even our non-conference schedule is difficult with teams like Curry from the CNE and Hamilton from NESCAC. We want to play really good teams to strengthen our program and show our kids what excellence looks like across D-III hockey.”
Having already scrimmaged Endicott (a 3-2 loss) and the University of New England (a 2-0 win), McCauley likes what he sees from a very deep roster of players that has talent and balance. The AmCats only lost one of their top twelve forwards from last season and have all their key point producers back with an added year of experience. Four new defensemen join the team in front of starting goaltender Matthew Hennessey and Cole Johnston along with two first-years for added depth and competition for the crease. Leadership is solid with captain Derek Raposo and assistants Justin Taylor and Brandon Della Paolera continuing the culture that the AmCats are always a difficult team to play against starting with the season opening Worcester City Cup (Woo Cup) tournament and their opening night game against Assumption.
“We haven’t forgotten that we lost twice to Assumption last season including the Woo Cup tournament,” said McCauley. Always good motivation going into the season to want to come out playing good hockey against a quality opponent. We set this tournament up sort of like the Beanpot with the four schools from the Worcester area (Nichols and Worcester State are the other two teams) and it would be great if we could get this to the level of playing at the DCU Center with great support from the school administrators and student bodies. We are not quite there yet but it would be great for Worcester and D-II/III hockey in the area. It is always nice to play for a trophy to start the season and would be nicer to win it.”
The AmCats follow up the Woo Cup with non-conference action against Morrisville (SUNYAC) and Hamilton before opening their MASCAC schedule with Rivier and Westfield State to close out the first month of the season.
“We really are excited to get going,” said McCauley. “The exhibition games were great but now we want to play games where the score matters, and the results are meaningful. There will be a lot of new things to adjust to this season including the conference game schedule of Thursday and Saturday games, but it is all part of bringing our program forward and finally having something to compete for.”
Anna Maria successfully launched the season last weekend with wins over Assumption (4-2) and Nichols (4-1) last weekend to claim the Worcester City Cup for the first time and now turns its focus on the rest of the season and success in their new conference.
