Last season, the Lady Rebels made it all the way to the semi finals in the South Sectional tournament after having an outstanding record of 11-7-1. This year the team hopes to achieve a better record and advance farther into the post season tournament than their past season.
This year’s team lost many big contributors due to graduation. However, their biggest loss might have come when junior Captain Brooke Matherson decided to discontinue her hockey career at Walpole High School.
Senior Captain Jenna Donahue —and the hero of the Rebels’ playoff win last year — said “After we lost some great players most people were pessimistic about the upcoming season. I personally anticipate this year to be a good one although we lost players, we just have to find the motivation to win.” If the success of the fall sports are indication, then Girls Hockey’s relative inexperience could not mean anything come playoff time.
To achieve their goal of winning the state championship, the Rebels have to take one step at a time and qualify for the tournament first. Additionally, another goal include winning the Bay State Herget Division
One of the biggest games of the year will be against longtime rival, Norwood, who has one of the most potent offenses in the league.
Last year’s playoff game against Medfield will hopefully give the girls the experience necessary to make the long tounament run that they hope to make. That game offered everything a tournament game has to offer — delays, overtime, penalty shots — so the girls hope to use that experience to their beneift.
One of the Rebels’ strengths is their team chemistry, which translates to good communication on the ice. This will help creating scoring opportunities since most of the girls have played together for multiple seasons.
Senior Captain Caitlin Barry said, “Our weaknesses are that we have lost a lot of key players, so figuring out lines is going to be tough and we’re also a really young team”.After having only 16 players come to the tryouts, all hands are on deck for girls hockey.
“We need everyone, from player one to player sixteen to step up if we want to succeed,” said Barry.
The team consists of mostly sophomores and freshmen and there are a lot of inexperienced girls. The Rebels are a young team, however, they have the talent to repeat last year’s success.
