Season ends in a close game at the state semifinals

The women’s hockey team fell to Mercy in the semifinals of the state championships on Thursday, putting them in third place in the state.

“Going into Thursday, we knew that the game could go either way. We knew that if we played our best we had a shot at moving on to win states,” Carson Dennis ’17 said.

The team has been very strong the past couple of years and has had several competitive runs at the state championship, this year just barely falling short of the finals, Dennis said.

“At the end of the day, we put in the effort, but some of the bounces and calls weren’t going our way,” Dennis said.

The girls had two goals called off in the second and third periods.

“We lost 2-1 in the end, but if the refs had made some better calls, we would’ve won 3-2. We had two good goals in the second and third periods that would have given us the lead but were called off for no good explanation. It was really disappointing,” Shannon McKenna ’17 said.

Although the score fell short, South was clearly the stronger team, McKenna said. One of South’s goals that got overturned came from a one on zero breakaway and Mercy’s goalie pushed the net off because she didn’t save the puck.

“There a saying that says “some games you have to beat the other team and the refs”, this definitely applied to Thursday’s game. We had plenty of other opportunities to score but we did not capitalize on them,” Dennis said.

The disappointed feeling of losing to both the other team and the refs was held throughout the team, Dennis said, but the team is still proud to have made it so far.

The team’s success stemmed from hard work and preparation, Coach Christopher Booth said, including early morning practices and good competition.

“We went into the game really prepared, the last three weeks of the season we were playing our best hockey.” Booth said.

It was a really, really hard way to end the season because the team was feeling so good and working so hard, Booth said.

“I’m so proud of them because it wasn’t that we got out worked, we just didn’t win. It was a bad break.”  Booth said.

Regardless, the team was proud of the effort and work they displayed on the ice, Booth said.

“I wouldn’t change a thing about Thursday night’s game. We dominated the competition and deserved a win,” McKenna said. “The failed officiating brought us to the point where the game was out of our control, so it’s best for us not to dwell on it.”