Girls’ Varsity Hockey Bests Tilton School

By Elaine Qiao and Stella Song

The Academy’s girls’ varsity hockey team had a home game on Jan. 26 against fellow New Hampshire high school, the Tilton School.

In the game, Exeter scored a 5-2 victory over Tilton. Players Kate Nixon, Tenley Nelson, Jessica Chen, Eden Welch, and Anjali Frary contributed to the five goals against the opposing team.

The team demonstrated impressive collaboration in reaching their goal. “The Tilton victory was remarkable because it was truly a team effort.” 

“In that game we had goals scored by 4 different pairings of players. That is a very positive performance as often times it is one or two groups that dominate the scoring. In the Tilton game it was truly a balanced effort by the team with everyone contributing to the victory,” Coach Jim Tufts said.

“I believe that the team’s strength is the depth and balance that has led to success. We have many forwards that are fast, tenacious and skilled and that depth is a factor in pressuring our opponents. We have a defensive group that is very smart, makes great decisions with the puck and they have played very well. We also have 4 very solid goalies that compete hard in practice and have performed very well in games,” Tufts added.

Senior and captain Grace Emmick shared a few thoughts on the game, saying, “It was a phenomenal team effort all game. Each of the five goals came from different players, and everyone else gave it their all.”

Upper Anjali Frary agreed. “The game against Tilton was well-paced, with lots of great contributions from everyone on the team. Each of our three lines performed well, with goals coming from each line. The team worked hard to execute the skills we have been focusing on recently, like getting lots of shots on goal and having strong offensive pressure. The team’s energy was high, with growing enthusiasm as we picked up the pace, finishing the game with a strong third period,” she said.

The team had a slow start, with a two-goal deficit near the end of the first period, however, their team spirit was not discouraged. “We started to gain momentum near the end of the first period when Kate scored our first of five goals,” Emmick said. 

Upper Kate Nixon, who scored the first goal also agreed, saying, “We had an unfocused start, but with the help from coaches, we picked up the energy. We were good at noticing what the team spirit was, and we picked up the energy and pulled it together.”

As with any sport, practice was essential in the team’s victory. COVID restrictions posed challenges to team practices. Players shared their practice experiences during the outbreak of Omicron. “Although some guidelines were frustrating at times, we were all flexible with locker room or masking protocols and never let them get in the way of us practicing and competing,” Emmick said. 

“I believe we had to wear masks during this game to follow COVID protocols, and we always were masked during practice. That has changed recently, as we have the option not to wear masks while on the ice,” lower Jessica Chen said. 

Practice and warmup prepared the team for the upcoming game. “I think that our pre-game warmup and music really helped us get fired up for our game. Practice the day before is usually a good way to practice our power-play, penalty kill, and other systems.” Chen said. 

Tufts shared the strategy for the Tilton game. “For that game we wanted to deposit pucks deep in the Tilton end of the rink and put pressure on their defenders.” Tufts is very proud of the team’s efforts and growth. “The team has improved markedly this season— both as individual players and as a team! Every game is very competitive, hard fought and well played.”

Nixon shared the team’s goals and hopes for the rest of the season saying, “We have tough opponents for the rest of the season. Our goal is to take advantage of having more home games and get ready for E/a. We are aiming for focused, intense starts right from the beginning.”