The Lady Blue Devils made an impressive win at Eastside Hockey Arena on Saturday, Feb. 17. Playing the Traverse City Bay Reps, ranked third in their division, the Blue Devils, ranked second, were ready to fight.
The game started off with a lot of back and forth. South player Molly Reynolds ’25 scored the first goal with six minutes and 35 seconds left in the first period. Just 44 seconds later, Lyssie Moody ’24 came out strong with another goal. With about five minutes left in the first period, the Bay Reps were urged to get a puck past captain and goalie Rosie Smith ’25, but nothing could get through, allowing South to end the first period with a 3-0 lead.
Because the Bay Reps previously tied the University of Liggett, ranked number one and South’s biggest competition right now, being up by three points at this point in the game was exciting for South to see, Moody said.
“Going into the second period, we knew our opponents were going to come out strong as they did not want to lose after driving five hours one way to verse us,” Moody said. “Despite our lead, we knew we were going to have to really put our head in the game for the remaining 30 minutes.”
The second period of the game consisted of only one goal and a whole lot of penalties. For a total of six within 15 minutes, Traverse City had two penalties and South had four. When South had a player down, there were shots on Smith and anxious fans in the stands. Fan Bella Leonard ’24 said she felt a change in the tone on the ice.
“Although South was now up by four, the visiting team had stepped up their play, and South seemed to respond to that by getting aggressive, causing us to be down a player for minutes at a time,” Leonard said. “There were definitely more gasps in the bleachers during the second period than the whole game combined.”
Having said that, the Blue Devils played with more strategy and team camaraderie in the third period, allowing them to dominate the ice and win 6-0, with Maeve Hix ’24 scoring the game’s last goal and Smith keeping the shutout.
Because of this win, South was able to bump Traverse City down from third place to fifth in the division one rankings.
“I am so proud of what this team accomplished tonight,” Hix said. “I felt the team chemistry there and heard a lot of communication on the ice, which is a huge factor to why we were able to bring home a win.”
