SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Do you believe in miracles?
Members of the women's ice hockey club team at Slippery Rock University would answer national TV sports announcer Al Michaels' famous exclamation/question with a resounding “Yes we do!”
The club, in only its third season of American Collegiate Hockey Association Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference competition, upset the top tournament's top two seeds in succession last weekend to win its first-ever DVCHC Division II championship.
“We're still in shock,” club president Lora Gasiewski said two days after the championship game. “We knew we could beat all the other teams in the tournament, but we really didn't know if we would. Let's just say, we knew the odds were against us.”
Head coach Mike Harshman was a little more emotional about the winning effort.
“All three of those games were enough to give me a heart attack,” he said in an interview with a Pittsburgh area newspaper. “For those women to play three intense games like that in one weekend and to win each one… that was exciting.”
“I'm excited for next year and to see who comes out for the team now that we've won a championship,” said club vice president Katie Sines, a junior center and health and physical education major from Poland, Ohio.
The future seems bright for the SRU squad as Gasiewski is the only senior on the team. A few other players are not expected to play next season, though, due to conflicts with internships and other academic commitments.
There was no magic elixir for the SRU club's success last weekend, Gasiewski said. “Everyone just stepped up and we played very well as a team.”
SRU, which finished third in the 2009 DVCHC championships, entered this year's competition at the Hagerstown Ice and Sports Complex in Hagerstown, Md. as the “wild-card” entry and seeded fifth after it had compiled a 4-5 record in regular-season action.
Undaunted, the SRU club beat fourth-seeded Navy by a 3-2 score in the first round of action to avenge a 5-2 regular-season loss and earn the right to face top-seeded Rutgers in a semifinal match.
Freshman winger Amy Bauman, an undecided major from Reading, scored all three Rock goals in the game and goalie Emily Greer, a junior public health major from Franklin, Mass., turned away 29 of 31 shots on goal by Navy.
Gasiewski assisted on one of Bauman's goals. Amanda Althouse, a freshman winger and biology major from Lebanon, and Anastasia Pyzik, a sophomore center and therapeutic recreation major from Edgewood, Md., each also had an assist.
In semifinal action, the SRU club avenged a pair of regular-season losses (5-3, 5-4) to Rutgers by handing the top-seeded Scarlet Knights a 7-6 setback.
“After we beat Rutgers, we knew we were in a good position to win it all,” Sines said, “because we had beaten Drexel during the regular season.”
Mandy MacKinnon, a freshman winger and business major from Indiana, Pa., scored the winning goal with five minutes left to play. Pyzik scored two goals for SRU, Bauman had a goal and an assist, Althouse and Alli Zube each scored a goal and Meredith Gruseck assisted on two goals.
Zube is a sophomore defender and sport management major from Williamsport, Md., while Gruseck is a sophomore winger and elementary education major from Mason, Ohio.
The semifinal win over Rutgers moved SRU into the championship game against second-seeded Drexel University of Philadelphia, against which SRU had recorded a 6-5 win in the teams' only on-ice duel.
SRU jumped out to a 4-2 lead before Drexel scored a pair of power-play goals, the final one coming with 90 seconds remaining in regulation time, to tie the score at 4-4 and send the title game into overtime.
Less than a minute into the extra stanza, the game was over, though, as Bauman found the back of the net with a shot on goal to give SRU a 5-4 victory and the championship trophy.
“That wasn't one of my better shots,” said Bauman, who led SRU and ranked third in the DVCHC in scoring with 12 goals and six assists in the regular season, “but I got the puck over the goalie's pads and it went in.”
The title-winning shot didn't immediately set off a wild celebration. “We all just skated together and went back to congratulate our goalie,” Gasiewski said. “Then I think we realized what we had just done and the gloves and sticks starting flying into the air. We got pretty excited at that point.”
Bauman's game-winning goal came after Zube had scored twice and Gasiewski and Gruseck each had a tally in regulation time.
Sines was SRU's second leading scorer during the regular season with six goals and five assists, Althouse scored six goals and had three assists, Zube chipped in five goals and two assists and MacKinnon had four assists.
Greer ranked fourth in the DVCHC with an 84.5 save percentage and a 3.0 goals allowed average during regular-season action.
The SRU roster also included:
Kellianne Burdorf, the team's treasurer, a junior athletic training major and center from Hermitage, Tenn.; Nicole Cantine, a freshman athletic training major and defender from McDonald; Anna Steinmiller, a junior elementary education major and winger from Pittsburgh; Hannah Whittaker, a sophomore French education major and winger from Pittsburgh; and Madeline Whitney, a sophomore psychology major and defender from McKeesport.
