Bethany Harvatits and Rylee Garrow scored their first collegiate career points this month!
by Janet Schultz
It’s so great to get back into the arenas, with fans, once again. Getting used to some new protocols, some easy, some challenging but hopefully back in the groove.
NYHOL has managed to see the Buffalo State, Nazareth and RIT teams play at least once and are working on our schedules to get to more.
Well, there is action both on and off the ice in just a few short weeks.
Buffalo State
Buffalo State’s Head Coach, David Dee, has stepped down to pursue other professional interests and that has put Rachel Grampp in the Interim Head Coach position for the Bengals. Grampp was part of the Western New York Girl’s Varsity Ice Hockey Federation in its early years and was a stand-out player for Elmira College. She has served as the assistant coach at Buffalo State since 2019.
Assisting her is Ron Adimey, who has been serving as an assistant coach, goalie coach and recruitment coordinator.
The Bengals are off to a rough start on the ice with losing all six games so far. They have some more tough competition when they faceoff against Concordia this weekend (Nov. 26 & 27) and then head to Canton and Plattsburgh before playing a home game on December 11 against Morrisville.
The excitement at Buff State is the fact that so many of the players are local including Captain Tori Fadeley who played for Cazenovia and Frontier/Lakeshore/Orchard Park of the WNYGVIH Federation; Bethany Horvatits who also played for Caz and Lancaster/Iroquois/Depew of the WNYGVIH. Also Gabby McCrory (Caz); Sarah and Amanda Jackson (Niagara Rapids, and Amanda with Niagara County of the WNYGVIH), Lilli Adimey (Syracuse Valley Eagles and Clarence/Amherst/Sweethome of the WNYGVIH).(Caz) and Sissy Harman (HEWS of WNYGVIH).
Other NYer’s include Autumn Benedict (Salmon River/Cornwall Typhoons), Rylee Garrow (Salmon River/St. Lawrence Steel) and Lexi Lazore (Salmon River/St. Lawrence Steel).
Garrow and Horvatits had their first career points with assists the week of November 15.
Buffalo had to 2020-2021 season and in 2019-20 came away with a 4-14-0 season under then-Coach Dee.
RIT
The Tigers are also off to a struggle this season after facing top-ranked teams like Morrisville, Colgate, Syracuse and Minnesota. They will be looking to breaking their losing streak when they face Lindenwood December 3 and 4. They then head to Long Island University for a New Year’s Eve game. They don’t return home until February 14 when they faceoff against Penn State.
Head Coach Celeste Brown, a former RIT player, is in her second year of coaching after taking the position in the “pandemic year.” RIT went 1-15 last season.
Kylie Aquaro was named Rookie of the Week for November 1 after she scored the tieing goal in both games against St. Thomas, only for the Tommies to break that tie and win.
WNY’s Emma Roland is tied in season scoring with 5 goals and 1 assists for six points. She is tied in points with Lindsay Malone who has 3 goals/3assists.
Nazareth
Only three seasons in Nazareth has made a mark in the women’s collegiate hockey world. Coach Chris Baudo, the Inaugural Coach, has 45 victories in three season. This season they are 8-0 overall beating Buffalo State opening weekend 8-1 and 8-0. They then went on to defeat Chatham, Wilkes and Lebanon Valley.
Up next is Neumann College on December 2 and 3; Hamilton, December 10 and Amherst College December 11.
The team is made up of numerous players from New York State and include many familiar names from the high school and local travel teams.
Nikolle Van Stralen (Rochester Monarchs), Stephanie Kubis (Syracuse Nationals), Gabriella DeMeo (Niagara Junior Purple Eagles), Emma Hays (Portledge School), Ally Watrous (NJPE), Maggie Pfalzgraf (Buffalo Bisons), Christine Darby (St Lawrence Steel), Keeley Rose (Northwood), Katie Cascio (Selects Academy).
Madison Nichols leads Nazareth’s scoring with 4 goals and 11 assists for 15 points.
University of Buffalo
The UB women’s ice hockey team plays in the ACHA D2 league. They opened October 2 against Ohio State with a 6-0 loss. Currently they are 3-3 overall and play out of Northtown Arena, Amherst.
Two former WNYGVIH players are rostered with UB including Gabby Messing, who currently has 4 goals and 3 assists for 7 points and Goalie Izzy Battaglia with 3 wins and 3 losses. She is the only goaltender for the team.
Sierra Dominick leads the scoring with 9 goals and 5 assists for 14 points.
