Thrilling Girls' Hockey Season Ends With Andover Shutout

Record: 10-11-3 After the graduating of their key 2012 players, girls’ varsity hockey began this seasonunsure of their path. In the rst half of their season, the team struggled to score, losing gamesby one or two points. Towards the end of the year, however, they showed de nite improvementin every aspect of the game and came back with several strong wins to nish with arecord of 10-11-3.The team began the year looking to ll the holes of their graduates, but new and returningplayers helped ll the alumni’s places. Senior co-captain Meghan Turner was truly a leader onthe team, not only on the scoreboard, where she put up 50 points, but also as a role model foryounger players. Similarly, senior Hannah Dineen came forward as an essential part of the team.“Hannah had a really good season and scored a lot,” Turner said. “Even though she wasn’ta captain, she still led a lot on and off the ice.” Turner also praised upper Alyssa Heinze as shebecame a key player for the team as the season progressed. “The amount Alyssa improvedover the summer was monumental. She stepped it up, and I’m sure she’ll continue to whenthe seniors are gone,” Turner said.Head coach Melissa Paci c was impressed with her squad. “I think we had one of the toplines in prep schools this season,” she said. “Meghan, Alyssa and freshman Kirsten Nergaardwere a force ve on ve and on the power play.” The strength of the team was not limited toits offense, however. Senior co-captain Yuna Evans was resilient in the net, and prep AllegraGrant joined her as the team’s second goalie, playing in eight games and recording a .930save percentage.The team had mixed results in the beginning of the season, beating Milton in their rstgame but losing to Cushing and tying with Lawrence after that. “We started out in a rut,”Turner said. “We de nitely should have won the Lawrence game.” Turner stated that the lackof victories was mainly due to the team’s dif culty scoring. “Some losses would have beenwins had we been able to score more; we got a lot of shots, but they weren’t quality shots.”Next, Big Red beat Brooks School 2-0, demonstrating a more cohesive style of play aswell as strong defense. In the New Year’s Tournament, Exeter won two of the four gamesthey played. “Coach Paci c always gives us a tough schedule because it helps us preparefor the rest of the season,” prep Lexi Butler said. “We didn’t do as well as we wanted in thetournament, but it was fun for us to play together when there wasn’t school—that way wecould just focus on improving. That was the main goal of the tourney.”Following the tournament, Exeter hit a four-game skid. Their game against Deer eld,a 1-2 overtime loss, stood out. “I’m pretty sure we could have won [against Deer eld],”Turner said. “We still were struggling with scoring, and that was the main reason we lost. Thescoreboard didn’t show it, but we were equal to if not better than Deer eld in some ways.”Finally, the team turned around, destroying Tilton 4-0. This win marked a change inattitude for the team, and despite losing their next game to South eld, the girls began a midseasonsurge, utilizing momentum and well-developed breakouts in order to knock downtheir opponents’ defense.“We were having a rough time before [the Tilton game],” Butler said, “but the win gaveus a lot of con dence, reassuring us that we could play well and were a good team.” Big Redproceeded to defeat Hebron, and the team was beginning to work cohesively and consistentlywell together, moving towards a stronger end of the season.In a show of dominance and teamwork, Exeter destroyed Andover 8-1 in their next game.“It was a very uneven match,” Heinze said. “We just had a lot more talent and were able tocapitalize on that.”Coming off of such a decisive victory, Exeter suffered a tricky loss in overtime againstSt. Paul’s and a dif cult defeat to a strong BB&N team. Big Red chalked up a 4-1 win againstKUA but was unable to score against Tabor, getting shut out 0-4. Next, Big Red tied in overtimeagainst NMH, and despite the scoreboard, many teammates felt they had won the game.“NMH was a pretty good game for us,” Turner said, “and it led us into our game againstWinchendon determined to get a victory.” Big Red did just that, securing a strong 3-2 winagainst Winchendon in their nal game before E/a.Andover had improved since their previous matchup and held on for a tight gameat the beginning, but they were still no match for Exeter’s talent and fell to Big Red3-0.“E/a started off exciting like it always does,” Heinze said, “but I don’t thinktheir defense could keep us off the scoreboard.”With this victory, Exeter nished the season on a much higher note than it began.“We were a little inexperienced in the beginning, but towards the end of the seasonwe picked it up,” Turner said. “It was a really good season even though our recordwasn’t the best.” Turner added that the atmosphere of the team was particularlywelcoming to the new players and friendly all around. “There was no drama; peopleweren’t competitive with each other, which sometimes happens in sports. Practiceswere fun, even though we were focused.”Although the team nished under .500, the season record did not re ect the team’simprovement. “The overall team dynamic got a lot better throughout the season,”Heinze said. “We were able to connect a lot of dots that weren’t there before.”Big Red will lose key players to graduation this year. All three co-captains willbe missed, as will be Dineen and senior Meaghan Albert. “We’re losing a lot oftalented bodies,” Heinze said.Turner agreed, though she is optimistic for the squad. “Next year they’ll be good.I don’t know how many recruits we got, but in general it’s a strong team. This yearwas sort of a rebuilding year, so next year we’ll be solid. All the underclassmen areready to ll our places. There’s really no position that is lacking in talent.”Leading the team as captains next year are uppers Alex Betrus and Heinze. Withtwo lines and ve defensemen, the bench will be shorter next year, as it has been inyears past, but the team is up to the challenge.“It was a good season, and I’ll de nitely miss the team a lot,” Turner said. “Ican’t wait to watch them next year.”