VG Hockey: Future Looks Bright for Spartans

3/9/2020

By Bernie Pimm

The Varsity Spartans girls hockey team completed an unbelievable five-year stretch of not yielding a loss in NAPHA play by winning their fifth hampionship in a row last month and their sixth over the last seven years.

The goal by Laurence Frenette (Blaineville, Que., Clarkson 2021) mid-way through the first 3x3 overtime period sealed the 3-2 win for the girls in front of a packed Pat Burns Arena on Monday, February 28, capping off her second 2-goal game of the championship weekend.

The girls were pushed by Rothesay-Netherwood the whole way in the final, as the Spartans had to come back and tie the game up with just 6 minutes to go to push the game into OT. Graduating winger, Emily Eikleboom (Chesterville, ON., Laurentian 2020) scored her third of the weekend, a powerplay goal to tie the game up.

Despite a hard push the rest of the way, RNS goalie Casey McCallum stood tall, giving her team a chance to complete the upset in OT.

Fortunately for the Spartans, graduating players continued their stellar play the entire weekend as Hannah Johnson (Readfield, Maine, Syracuse 2020), Emily Holmes (Miramichi, NB, RIT 2020), Melianne Reynolds (Sherbrooke, Que., Norwich 2020) and Portia Eldaun (Kimberly, BC, U of C) drove the team to the final with wins against Rice(6-2), King’s Edgehill (7-0), and Nichols Prep (3-0). Graduating goalie Jane Gervais (Val’Court, Que., Wisconsin 2020) completed her standout season with her 13th and 14th shutouts of the season and 23rd win of the year in the final.

The future is bright for the Stanstead girls as we return 15 players, five who played on their respective provincial teams, including defensive standouts Emile Fortunato (Laval, Que., Holy Cross, 2021) and Dominque Cormier (St-Marie-du-Kent, NB, Princeton, 2021). Combined with our returning group, our in-coming class is looking very strong. I anticipate that we will continue to have multiple girls playing on provincial teams, challenging to make Team Canada U18 and continuing to earn top notch college opportunities next year.

Most importantly, we continue developing amazing young women who challenge themselves on a daily basis to earn tremendous opportunities, athletic and academic, in the future.

As I write this article on International Women’s Day, I smile with confidence knowing that our girls have the grit, compassion, drive and desire to lead in tomorrow’s fast-paced, dynamic, challenging world! 2019-2020 has been an unbelievable year!

- Coach Pimm