Story by Alex Rodriguez, Sports Columnist
Throughout the season, this year’s Aquinas Women’s Hockey team has fought hard to compete with the teams they faced this season. While holding an unfortunate losing record this season of 4-17-1, they had to face up against some tough opponents and they worked hard together as a team to constantly improve throughout the year. Although they’re record doesn’t seem the best, they had quite a few accomplishments with some star moments and incredible games.
Going through the season, they faced off against solid conference teams right out the gate. Facing Davenport within the first two games, they faced a close loss, losing 2-1. However, they came back against Davenport the next night to reverse the score, winning 2-1 right back at them. Continuing the season they faced tough losses to Grand Valley, Michigan State, Michigan, and Concordia. These teams were tough opponents holding solid records of their own and staying aggressive on offense regularly.
In moments, this team skated past other teams such as Grand Valley beating them twice later in the season. Winning their game 5-2 then winning the next game 3-1. These led to their second and third wins of the year. However, the fun of the season didn’t stop there. Going into the last game of the season, the Women’s Hockey team had faced Miami (OH), a team that beat them the night before 3-1. Going into this final game they were seen as underdawgs, but with extreme resilience from the team, led took the 0-0 game into penalty shootouts. This shootout led to a final game victory for these Saints, ending their season, on senior night, with a hard fought victory.
Along with this, a special highlight goes to Kaydence Romijn, a senior goalie from La Salle, Manitoba holding a season with 1,158 saves to her name. She held a save percentage of .930%, and had multiple games this season while holding more than 80 saves in the match. This earned her the honor of Aquinas Saint of the Week, on multiple occasions along with special highlights through well known social media platforms expressing the talent she had while in goal this season. Known as the “Brick Wall”, Romijn will go down as the greatest goalie in the history of the Aquinas Women’s Hockey franchise.
Although this season didn’t obtain a positive record, there is definitely a lot to look forward to in the soon to come seasons of Women’s Hockey. With new recruits coming in and still some young players it is exciting to see what this team will be able to accomplish when they enter into their next season.
The Saint 