By Emma Russell ‘17 | Staff Writer

On Tuesday, Jan. 11, the Grosse Pointe South girls hockey team lost to their rivals, the University Liggett School, with a score of 3-4. However, this game was only a scrimmage, so the loss does not count against their record.

“I think we gave up a few bad goals, I think all their goals were breakaway goals tonight. The positive thing was how we came out strong in the third period, they scored a goal, and we came back. Our goalie played well and that’s a good team,”,” Chris Booth, social studies teacher and coach of the girls hockey team at South, said. “We have a lot of things to work on, we just have to up our game. We’re where we want to be for right now, but where we want to be for the end of the year is a lot different.”

Even though the team faced a loss, captain Carson Dennis ‘17 is looking towards the more positive aspect.

“Any city rivalry we take very seriously and losing kind of helps our drive to move forward and improve,” Dennis said. “If we just win, sometimes we underestimate how good teams are and that can be our downfall. But, losing to Liggett last night, overall, only made the drive better.”

Liggett was runner up last year in the state finals, so with this loss it is forcing the team to look at what areas need to be improved.

“A lot of our players, they have bad habits, we got to work on being strong on the puck, having two hands on the stick, but we got a lot of good players, too. It’s a huge commitment to this team and we work really hard,” Booth said.

Even though the loss does not count towards their record, the majority of the team is taking it into serious consideration in what this means for them, Emma Frame ‘16 explained. Liggett was the team they played in the state finals last year, so the loss on Monday night is urging the girls to look at what they need to work on in order to remain the best in the league.

“It definitely gives us a little caution, because last year the score was 2-1, so it was a close game in the state finals, too. It’s definitely a concern and we realize we have to work harder, train harder and get better overall as a team if we want to get better and win again, because obviously they are a huge competition along with many other teams in the league this year,” Frame said. “I think this was an eyeopener for a lot of the girls and showed that this isn’t over, we aren’t just state champs, best team in the league, you always need to be working hard and getting better, especially against teams like Liggett and Cranbrook.”

Frame mentioned that with a varsity team containing 36 girls versus the regular 15, it acts as an obstacle for them to overcome.

“Usually in varsity sports you play with the same 15 people throughout the whole season, but with hockey, with this many girls, it’s not the same lineup every game. There’s about 10 core players who will play in every varsity game, but that means there will be about 6 to 7 other girls who come up and play in the game,” Frame said. “Sometimes it’s hard if you’re in a line with them. You haven’t been practicing with any of them, you haven’t played a game with them before, it’s hard to start off with that and get into the groove with them.”

Frame said that they are working to find a solution to this issue they wound up having.

“At practices we’ve been making it work where we break up into groups of like 6 or 7 people and that makes it easier; you’re not one big practice with everybody,” Frame said.

Dennis agreed that with the large number of girls on the team it is difficult, but she explained everyone has the same mindset in what their goals are for the future.

“It’s definitely been a challenge with the 36 girls on one team, technically. You don’t get to know everyone as personally as you do on a team with 15 girls, but, overall, we have the same goal of improving every day, so that’s what gets us through.”

Among the problems the team faces with size and how they must approach each play, there has been improvements since the beginning of the season, Frame explained.

“Overall, I think we’re doing really well, we’ve made huge improvements since the beginning of the season already,” Frame said.

With the team working hard Booth sees a positive outcome for the future.

“I like the way we’re progressing; to me, it’s all about where you finish, not where we are right now. So, we’re scheduling as many games as possible, we’re working as hard as we can. At the end of the year we’re going to be the best in town,” Booth said