(Photo: Nicholas Badders/WCSN)
As the season begins to settle, the ASU women’s hockey freshmen have left their mark on the ice.
Malak Rabuck, Taylor Northcott, Morgan Benson, Sara Zimmerman, Emily Kline, Karlie Chadwick, Abi McGee, Andi Main, and Claire Walter make up the team’s nine freshmen. Together, the freshman have totaled 72 of ASU’s 170 points.
“I definitely think our freshmen are doing really well this season,” said McGee. “I think we’ve all shown what we can do in just a few short months and I think it’s not going to stop there. We’re going to continue to grow and be more dominant in our league.”
Coming in as a freshman can be overwhelming. Playing on new ice with new teammates is something the players had to get used to in order to build up their confidence.
“I think that it took my coach just telling me in practice to just do it instead of thinking about it,” Kline said. “Just things like ‘go around that person, go shoot the puck, don’t think your only option is a d-to-d pass.’ I think it was just confidence in general.”
Head Coach Lindsey Ellis praised Kline’s new found confidence on the ice.
“I think she [Kline] is really blossoming now,” said Ellis. “You can see it especially on the ice. Having that confidence to skate the puck in towards the net and getting goals, you can tell as the season goes on, every single day she gets more comfortable.”
With ASU having four road trips to start the season, the Sun Devils were able to bond and become closer.
“By the end of our first travel game we all knew each other and knew everything about each other,” Rabuck said. “Whenever we go on travel games we always do team bonding stuff and everyone is so willing and open to participating and getting to know each other.”
For someone like Kline, who’s on ASU’s Polytechnic campus, she isn’t always able to participate in the team bonding activities in the Tempe area. Having all of those road games at the beginning of the season helped Kline in growing closer to her teammates.
“The first thing that they made us do was put on a big pair of headphones and play a song really loud and sing it,” said Kline. “I did Fruit Salad by The Wiggles. I think that embarrassing ourselves was a good way to get us all together.”
With so many freshmen having captain positions with their previous teams, they have been able to step up as leaders throughout the season.
“I think Abi [McGee] and Andi [Main] already as freshmen are coming in and being great leaders,” Ellis said. “It’s so hard to pick specific leaders on our team. A lot of them were captains in high school and have those leadership capabilities in them.”
McGee thinks of herself as one of the freshmen who does speak up in the locker room and on the ice.
“I think I’m definitely one who says what I want and follows it,” said McGee. “Having a team with everyone being leaders definitely helps a lot. When you’re down, you have four other people right behind you saying ‘no, no, no, you’re not done yet, get yourself back up.’ So it’s pretty awesome to have that.”
Coach Ellis has high hopes for this freshmen class to follow in what leading scorers sophomores Kat Jones and Danielle Dupont have done as sophomores. In the 2018-2019 season, Jones had 22 points and Dupont had 16. Both already passed last season’s points with Jones’s 27 points and Dupont’s 26 points.
“It’s kind of crazy to think that they’re this good as freshmen, because it will get better and better every year,” Ellis said. “As coaches, we compared it to Danielle and Kat. They had great seasons as freshmen and now they’re excelling as sophomores. So it only gets better once they kind of shake those nerves out and really understand everything that’s happening.”
Even though the season is winding down, these freshmen have more years to build off of this season.
“These freshmen that we’re with right now, we’re going to be here for the next four years,” said Rabuck. “By having nine of us here and nine of us by senior year, we’re going to grow together, play together, we’re all going to be with each other for so long…If we’re all working towards the same goal at the same time with the same people, then it’s just going to lead to greatness.”
In just their fourth season as a program, everything is starting to click for the Sun Devils.
“This is the year that the culture really came together,” Ellis said. “The freshmen really pulled that all together for us. I’m really happy with their performance and the character they’ve brought in. It’s really a fun group to be around.”
As recruits are starting to be announced for next season, Ellis likes to keep her players involved in the process.
“All the girls that are coming in have met our players, they’ve been here on campus, or they’ve skated around,” said Ellis. “Our girls will come to us after and say ‘these girls really fit in with our culture’, and that’s super important for us. Just because if they don’t, we already know they’re not going to mesh well on the ice. We’re really excited that they [freshmen] are part of our recruiting process.”
