Sports
Pointers begin season with a tie against Ollies
The Pointer
rnech142@uwsp.edu
The Pointer women’s hockey team officially began their season with a 1-1 tie against St. Olaf Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Ice Hawks Arena. Despite going into a five-minute overtime with the Ollies, neither team could capitalize during the extra period.
“Well after three months of preparation it was nice to finally play against someone. We were all nervous and it was nice to get the first one behind us,” remarked senior forward Michelle Sosnowski. “None of us are happy with the tie; it was better than a loss.”
Scoreless into the second period, Sosnowski earned the first and only goal for the team off an assisting pass from Nicole Grossman. Sosnowski did not think the game was a chance to settle in, rather a long-awaited start to the new year.
“We were ready to go, but things just didn’t go in our favor,” she said.
Junior Pointer goalie d’Andra Phillips earned 34 saves between the pipes in the first regular season after playing eleven games for University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point last year. She came into this season with a 95 percent save record. Ollie goaltender Jessica Ptachick notched 38 saves during the match-up.
Next up for the lady skaters is a doubleheader weekend against Finlandia University at 7 p.m. on Saturday night and 2:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. It will be a full weekend for the Pointers who face-off in the first two of 18 Northern Collegiate Hockey Conference games they will play this season.
Finlandia, a private college from Michigan, comes to Stevens Point this weekend with new head coach Heather Reinke and a four-game winless streak so far this fall.
The Pointers were the ones to come out on top in all three match-ups between the teams last season. If Sosnowski has anything to say about the upcoming games, UW-SP will follow that previous trend.
“This coming weekend we are going to drive the puck to the net, capitalize on our chances and stay strong on the power play and penalty kill,” she said.
