Women’s club hockey shooting for nationals

Two years ago, Augustana’s women’s club hockey team had 13 players and a 12-game season. Last year, the team finished one spot away from qualifying for nationals. This year, they start their third season undefeated with more player depth than ever before. 

When Ben Prisbe was hired to coach club hockey at Augustana in 2024, his first order of business was recruiting more players. He said that on top of finding hockey players who were good students and interested in Augustana, he also needed to make sure those players were willing to take a leap of faith and join a brand-new program. 

Junior Marin Pederson has been playing on the women’s club hockey team since the inaugural season.

“It was kind of scary to get started because we had a super small team and didn’t know what it was going to look like until it got started,” Pederson said.

The players said they often look back on their first practice and compare it to where they are now. 

“It’s an enormous difference between each of those very first practices,” said junior and team captain Kylie Lattimer. “The team’s just been growing ever since.”

This season the team has 20 players, including women who have played on the team since that first practice, incoming freshmen and a few transfers from Division III colleges. 

“It’s definitely been our best team yet. I think there’s a good chemistry on and off the ice, and everyone works really well together,” Pederson said.

The team welcomed two new goalies this season which is a huge relief to junior Lexi Metcalf who was the team’s only goalie the past two years. 

If she’d suffered an injury on the ice it would have put the entire team’s season in jeopardy.

“It’s been a blessing so far,” Metcalf said. “It kind of eases my stress and I bet the team’s stress as well.”

Prisbe said the deeper roster has also allowed for a healthy competitive environment and has raised expectations for each player. 

Because they didn’t qualify for nationals last season, Prisbe said the team has a clear goal to make the postseason this year.

They finished last season with a 16-8-1 record, falling just one rank short of going to nationals. This has given the players additional motivation to strengthen their skills. 

“We kind of have a little bit of a chip on our shoulder,” Prisbe said. 

Rather than focusing solely on results, Prisbe said the team’s growth is more about improving at each practice and pushing each other to be better. 

“Working on our game every single day, trying to get better, showing up to push each other every single day — that’s something that I think would determine a successful year for us,” Prisbe said. 

For the players, the value of club hockey extends far beyond the games. 

“It’s a great way to be involved, make friends, and then still get to go out and have fun and do other things around campus,” Pederson said. 

Lattimer said the team is a great source of support on campus and a place to foster leadership skills as well as friendships. 

“Having a team is just another group of people that you can go to in college when you need help or you want support or anything,” Lattimer said. “We’re all just there for each other, and I think an important part of college is that community.”