ELMIRA, N.Y. — Katie Granato ’19 and Stephanie Martin ’22 added to their weekly award total, as the two Elmira College women’s ice hockey teammates were selected to the D3hockey.com National Team of the Week.
Granato, who was tabbed as the EC Athlete of the Week and the UCHC Player of the Week just a few days ago, earned her second-ever D3hockey.com Team of the Week award this evening. The Naperville, Illinois, native had a sublime start to the 2018-19 campaign by scoring a hat trick, the third such effort of her collegiate career, in Elmira’s 4-2 season-opening victory against defending national champion Norwich University.
Granato scored the game-opening goal just 16 seconds into the opening period, the fastest season-opening goal in EC history, before scoring the game-winning goal on the power play midway through the third period. She capped the game by scoring an insurance goal to complete the hat-trick effort at 11:12 in the final frame to hand to Soaring Eagles a redemption win over the Cadets.
Martin, who was tabbed as the UCHC Goalie of the Week on Tuesday afternoon, got her first collegiate start against the formerly No. 1/1-ranked Cadets of Norwich. The Yorktown, Virginia, native did not disappoint, as the rookie netminder amassed 22 saves in 60 minutes of action en route to the win. Martin made 11 stops in the first and second periods, but then came up with 11 additional stops in the final 20 minutes of regulation to solidify Elmira’s one-goal win over Norwich.
Additionally, Martin became the first EC freshman goalie to win in a season-opening game since Lauren Sullivan ’13 posted seven saves in a 3-0 shutout win over Buffalo State on November 6, 2009. Martin also claimed honors of collecting the most saves (22) by an EC freshman goalie in a season-opening contest.
Granato and Martin’s efforts not only aided Elmira in the win, the duo also propelled the Soaring Eagles to the No. 1 ranking in both the U. S. College Hockey Online (USCHO) and D3hockey.com national polls. It marked the first time since March 2, 2015, that the Elmira women were No. 1 in both national rankings.
The top-ranked Soaring Eagles return to action this Friday, November 2, when they open UCHC play against Neumann University. The opening puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
