Exeter Girls’ Hockey Clinches Third Win Against Holderness

Last Wednesday, Jan. 20, Exeter girls’ varsity hockey secured their third win of the season in an exciting, closly contested match against Holderness School. The game was well fought on both sides, but in the end Exeter’s strong play and determination gave the team the lead as they went on to secure a 3-0 win.

Going into this game, Holderness and Exeter proved to be a close matchup. The two teams had season records of 6-7-2 and 4-9-1, respectively. However, Exeter had been holding intense practices recently, maintaining, as lower Kaleigh Conte said, “high tempo and energy,” in preparation to take on the Holderness team.

The girls were nervous about Holderness’ outdoor rink, but Conte said the team knew as soon as they “stepped on the ice that it was going to be a good game against a good team.”

Despite the freezing temperatures, the girls were able to secure an early lead and the momentum needed to stay competitive throughout the game.

“Everyone contributed to the win, and without each person’s great effort the outcome would not have been the same.”

Senior Deziray Desousa was the first to score with a strong outside shot that slid into the bottom of the net. After the goal, according to upper Sydnee Goyer, the team gained, “a lot of positive energy,” which allowed them to be “pulled together as a team.” Upper Kirsten Nergaard closed out the game with two final goals; the first was a shot from the blue line that Nergaard tipped in and the second a shot that Nergaard took from the neutral zone into an empty net.

Yet, according to senior Allegra Grant, the match was never easy, as Holderness was an aggressive team. “[They were] very physical and at times [taking] really dirty cheap shots at us,” she said. Luckily, however, Exeter “kept their heads” and finished strong.

The team was very proud of their performance. Lower Anna Reaman said, “Everyone contributed to the win, and without each person’s great effort the outcome would not have been the same.”

However, there was one person to whom many players contributed their success at Holderness: Grant.

“Grant is always there to keep us in the game. We often don't score many goals, but she always makes sure the other team scores fewer than us. She's the real star on this team,” lower Layne Erickson said.

Although the team was happy to take a win, going forward, the girls still hope to work on completing more possessions and improving their record.

“We are a very talented squad of girls. We hope to start putting more pucks in the net and therefore start winning more games. We hope to have our record start to reflect our talent as a team,” Conte said.

Overall, Goyer said, “This win was a great confidence booster for the team. We [recently] have had a few hard losses, but it was great to get out on the ice and have fun, playing as a team and seeing our efforts come to fruition.”