Claire Aimone ’26
Staff writer
Aimonecal@lakeforest.edu
The Forester Women’s Hockey team won 3-1 against Concordia University Wisconsin on Friday, Feb. 16th, starting their Northern Collegiate Hockey Association Slat’s Cup quarterfinal series.
Early in the game, Victoria Liu scored the team’s first goal, providing them with a head start. Danielle Selby then scored another goal, with assists coming from Ella Maher and Annika Sinker, showing their great teamwork. Macy Gehrke sealed the win with a third goal. Throughout the game, the team played well defensively and didn’t let their opponents get many opportunities at the net. Their performance showed their individual talent and collective determination to win, with this victory setting a positive tone for their future games.
In a conversation with Selby, who is one of the captains of the program, I asked, “What did you do to prepare for your game the next day?” She replied, “I didn’t really do anything too special to prepare, just made sure I was well-rested and got a good warm-up in.”
I followed up with, “Did you make any changes to your game plan based on insights gained from Friday’s matchup?” To which Selby responded, “We didn’t really make any changes to our game plan since we played well on Friday, but we figured they might change their forecheck and breakout, so we were ready to adjust if that was the case.”
The following Saturday, the women’s hockey team endured a 2-4 loss against Concordia Wisconsin. Despite initially falling behind 2-0, first-year forward Jasmine Kohl and sophomore forward Macy Gehrke equalized, both with goals of their own in the second period. Despite this, the opposing team managed to regain their lead towards the end of the second period and secured a late empty-net goal, forcing a minigame. During the minigame, the Foresters won 2-0 with goals from junior pairing Sophie Chapman and Abby Meyer, advancing them to the next round. Following this intense match, I had the chance to ask a few questions. Specifically in a conversation with sophomore goalie Angie Lombardi, I asked, “How did you guys motivate yourself to win the minigame after falling behind and losing in regular time?”
“We had really stepped up our game in the third,” said Lombardi. “We were dominating the game and knew that we had all the momentum going into the minigame. We remembered the score was 0-0 now and just needed to score first.”
When asked if there were any notable disparities in gameplay or strategy between the regular game and the minigame, Angie replied, “We didn’t have any significant difference. It helped that we had more fans there during the mini-game. We found some grit and heart, and knew it was a do-or-die situation. In the end, we were the team that wanted it more.”
The Lake Forest Women’s Hockey team travels to Adrian to play them on Saturday, February 24th, at 6:00 p.m. to determine whether or not they continue into playoffs.
