ELMIRA, N.Y. — The latest incarnation of the Elmira College women’s ice hockey team carried its tradition of excellence throughout the 2017-18 campaign, as the Soaring Eagles proved once again that they are among of the nation’s elite teams in Division III. While the Purple and Gold finished a goal shy of the ultimate prize at the NCAA Championship, EC capped off another marvelous season with a 25-3-2 overall record and an unbeaten mark in the inaugural United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) standings at 15-0-1.
Among the milestones reached this winter include three of the UCHC’s major year-end awards, winning the first-ever UCHC Tournament, appearing in the NCAA Tournament for the sixth consecutive season, hosting and beating nationally-ranked Adrian College in the NCAA quarterfinals, and advancing to the national title game with what may go down as one of the greatest comebacks ever, a 3-2 double-overtime victory over archrival and four-time defending national champion, Plattsburgh State, in the semifinals.
From the get-go, Elmira put the country on notice with a strong start. The Soaring Eagles won their first nine games, including UCHC series sweeps of King’s (Pa.), Stevenson and Chatham, as well as a pair of nationally-ranked wins over No. 6/6 Middlebury (4-1) and then-No. 2/2 Plattsburgh State (4-2) at the ultra-competitive UNO Classic. Against the Panthers, rookie forward Emma Crocker ’21 scored back-to-back goals to break a 1-1 stalemate and assisted on an insurance tally in the third to seal the win.
Crocker also scored the game winner the following evening against the Cardinals, but it was fourth-year goalie Kelcey Crawford ’18 who shined the brightest that night. Crawford established a new single-game program record with a phenomenal 62 saves against Plattsburgh State in one of the best goalkeeping performances in recent memory. Both Crocker and Crawford collected awards from the conference office the following week, as the former was named the UCHC Player of the Week and the latter garnered Goalie of the Week accolades, two of the many such awards the Soaring Eagles won throughout the year.
Although EC’s undefeated run was halted by a one-goal setback to an always-tough Amherst squad at the Murray Athletic Center, the New Year opened with a repeat of last year’s NCAA Quarterfinal and a preview of yet another first-round matchup between the Soaring Eagles and Adrian. No. 2/2-ranked Elmira walloped the No. 4/4 Bulldogs, 5-1, in the opening round of the East-West Hockey Classic in Northfield, Vermont, on January 7, thanks to multi-point outings from Katie Granato ’19 (2g) and Devyn Gilman ’21 (1g-2a). That win vaulted Elmira up the U.S. College Hockey Online (USCHO) National Poll to No. 1 for the first time since November of 2016, a ranking the team carried through a rare Monday loss to Plattsburgh in the second round of the East-West Classic and a weekend sweep of conference foe Utica.
Following the two-game sweep of the Pioneers, which improved Elmira’s conference record to 8-0-0, senior forward Sarah Hughson ’18 received her second UCHC Player of the Week Award. It came in recognition of her second hat trick in the series opener against Utica, as well as her back-to-back game-winners in the UCHC series. The wins over the Pioneers also started an unbeaten streak that lasted 16 straight games. The only two blemishes on Elmira’s record in that span were a pair of ties: a 3-3 draw against No. 3/2-ranked Norwich and a 2-2 tie with the UCHC’s second-best team, William Smith. In that 16-game stretch, Hughson had a least one point in 14 games, each resulting in Elmira wins.
On February 10, the EC women clinched the top seed in the UCHC Tournament by completing a two-game sweep of Manhattanville, and the regular season came to a close by routing Neumann on home ice by a combined score of 11-1. The home schedule at the MAC continued, as the Soaring Eagles welcomed the top-four seeds to Pine Valley, New York, for the UCHC Tournament. By virtue of beating Utica in the semis, 7-0, and a 5-0 shutout of Stevenson in the title game, the Purple and Gold hoisted the eighth conference tournament trophy in program history. Elmira dominated the All-Tournament Team selections with Crawford, Granato, Meghan Fonfara ’18, Kiana Melvin ’20, Rachel Grampp ’18, and the Tournament MVP, Hughson. Hughson earned the top honor by scoring yet another hat trick as part of a season-high-tying four-point effort (3g-1a) against the Mustangs in the championship.
Although the UCHC title didn’t guarantee EC an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship, a rigorous non-conference schedule was convincing enough for the selection committee to award the Soaring Eagles an NCAA quarterfinal home game for the first time since 2014-15. Alas, the Elmira women were matched up against their rival from the west, the Adrian Bulldogs, for a third consecutive postseason.
On March 10, Elmira and Adrian skated in to a scoreless draw for the first 53-plus minutes. In a battle between two All-American goalies, it was Bulldog freshman Kate Turner who flinched first. Hughson finally found the back of the net at 13:28 in the third period, her fifth game-winning tally of the year. Shannon Strawinski ’19 set up the goal with a highlight-reel backhanded pass across the mouth of the crease, and Hughson beat a sliding Turner inside the left post for perhaps the most important of her career-high 28 goals. An empty-netter by Maddie Evangelous ’19 in the final seconds sealed a 2-0 victory and punched EC’s ticket to the semifinal round.
The 2017-18 season may have been the first in which Elmira and Plattsburgh State skated in different conferences, but it’s only fitting that the former ECAC West powerhouses would go head-to-head again in the national semifinals. After splitting two regular-season meetings, it looked as though the Cardinals would have an opportunity to defend their four-straight NCAA titles. However, even for a stout Plattsburgh squad that was unbeaten when entering the third period with the lead, a 2-0 advantage was not enough to keep the Soaring Eagles grounded. In one of the most remarkable comebacks in all of NCAA hockey history, Strawinski practically brought Elmira back from the verge of elimination single-handedly with a natural hat trick. The junior forward netted a pair of goals in the third period to force overtime, and after 95:10 of playing time, she sniped the puck glove-side past Plattsburgh’s Brooke Wolejko on a two-on-two breakaway to dethrone the defending national champions.
The following night on May 17, the Soaring Eagles appeared in their seventh national championship game in program history, this time against the No. 1/2-ranked Cadets of Norwich on their home ice inside Kreitzberg Arena. Down by one late in the second period, Hughson forced a turnover in the Elmira zone and came up with a clutch shorthanded goal to even the score at 1-all. The difference in the contest was a late power-play opportunity for the Cadets. With a mere 1:33 remaining, Norwich’s Sophie McGovern found the top shelf from the high slot to give the hosts a 2-1 advantage. EC skated 6-on-5 in the closing seconds, frantically searching for the tying tally, but the Norwich defense clamped down to secure the win.
The Soaring Eagles returned to the Southern Tier as national runners-up, but the loss to the Cadets is nothing they should hang their heads about. The list of accomplishments and accolades collected by the Elmira skaters is impressive, to say the least. If nothing else, EC proved that, despite playing in a new conference under the watchful eye of second-year bench boss Tim Crowley, the Soaring Eagles are still the cream of the crop and a perennial title contender year-in and year-out.
Individual honors poured in left and right throughout the season. In brief, the Elmira student-athletes received a combined 11 weekly awards from the conference office, seven D3hockey.com Team of the Week selections and a league-best 10 All-UCHC honorees. That’s without mentioning two All-America honorees, two Academic All-Americans and the Elite 90 Award winner at the 2018 NCAA Championship.
A breakout senior season by Hughson was well decorated on many fronts. In 30 games played in 2017-18, she scored more goals and amassed more points than her first three collegiate seasons combined. The UCHC’s first-ever Player of the Year and Tournament MVP, Hughson ranked eighth in the country in points per game (1.63), fifth in goals per game (0.93), second in power-play goals (9), and fifth in game-winning goals (5). Her 49 points and 28 goals led both the team and the conference. Along with her All-UCHC First Team designation, the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) elected the fourth-year forward to the CCM/AHCA All-America First Team, and she was recognized as the Elmira College Female Athlete of the Year at the annual EC Athletic Awards Reception in May. For touting a 3.67 GPA, Hughson was also named to the 2017-18 Google Cloud Academic All-America® Division III Women’s At-Large Third Team.
Hughson wasn’t the only offensive threat the Soaring Eagles relied upon during the winter months. Fellow forwards Granato, Strawinski, Crocker, Gilman, and Louisa Lippiatt Durnell ’18 were also included on the All-UCHC ballot, while Fonfara, Maddie Evangelous ’19, Maddy Jerolman ’19, and Ari Smith ’18 – winner of the NCAA’s prestigious Elite 90 Award at the NCAA Championship – each recorded double-digit points. Smith, who graduated summa cum laude and Provost’s Prize for biochemistry at Elmira’s 2018 Commencement, was recognized as a Academic All-America First Team selection, the first skater to earn the achievement in program history.
Granato was second in the UCHC in points (42), third in goals (22), and tied for fifth in assists (20), all of which are single-season career-highs for the junior from Naperville, Illinois. She logged multiple points on a dozen occasions, including a hat trick in an early-season victory on the road against King’s and a career-best four goals in a road win over Chatham in December. Granato had a nose for the net against the toughest competition Elmira faced, too, as she scored twice in both regular-season meetings with Norwich and Adrian. After being named to the ECAC West All-Conference Second Team a year ago, Granato was promoted to the All-UCHC First Team in her third season donning the Purple and Gold.
Both forwards listed on the All-UCHC Honorable Mention Team were Soaring Eagles. Strawinski embraced the role of “unsung hero” for much of the season, a constant point-getter who quietly racked up a career-high 34 points (13g-21a). That is until the Toms River, New Jersey, native became a household name with a performance of a lifetime in the national semifinals. The 5-foot-5-inch junior etched her name in Elmira lore with her first career hat trick in the double-overtime thriller against Plattsburgh State, and finished 2017-18 in the top-5 in the UCHC in points, goals and assists.
For the second consecutive year, Durnell was crowned an All-Conference Honorable Mention. In addition, the senior forward became just the 12th Soaring Eagle to join the illustrious 100-point club, as she’ll graduate with 101 career points (28g-73a) in 113 games played over the past four seasons. Her 22 assists were not only a career high, but paced both the team and the UCHC. A product of East Sussex, England, Durnell tied a season high with a trio of assists in the conference title game against Stevenson and notched her 100th point with an assist against Adrian in the NCAA quarterfinals.
Another senior, Fonfara, compiled career highs across the board with 12 goals and 14 assists for 26 points. Elmira went 16-1-2 in the 19 games in which the fourth-year forward from Elma, New York, posted at least one point. After stringing together an impressive eight-game point streak in the first half of the year, Fonfara was included on the UCHC All-Tournament Team with four points (2g-2a) in the two rounds combined. Her three points (1g-2a) in the lopsided win over Utica in the opening round were a season high, and she netted the game-winner on the power play against Stevenson in the title game.
Evangelous (8g-17a) and Jerolman (12g-7a) were among the upperclassmen leaders in the offensive zone, and when paired with freshmen such as Gilman (6g-16a), Crocker (9g-11a), Jess Adams ’21 (6g-4a), and Tristen Tolan ’21 (4g-6a), the Soaring Eagles should continue to fire on all cylinders in 2018-19. Gilman, Crocker and Adams each received UCHC Rookie of the Week honors in their debut campaigns with EC, and all of the first-year forwards ranked in the top-10 in the conference in freshman scoring. Gilman and Crocker both achieved All-Rookie Team status by placing second and third, respectively, among freshmen scorers n in the UCHC.
Elmira will lose only one blueliner to graduation, but that player is Grampp, the 2017-18 UCHC Defender of the Year and an All-Tournament Team selection. The Williamsville, New York, native finished in a three-way tie with teammate Kristin Chivers ’19 and William Smith’s Maura Mulligan for fifth in the league among defenders with 17 points (4g-13a), a career high. She also spearheaded a d-corps that led all of NCAA Division III by allowing a paltry 1.03 goals per game and boasted the nation’s fifth-best penalty-kill unit (91.2 percent).
Chivers and classmate Meg Lahey ’19 will lead returning blueliners after amassing 17 and 16 points, respectively. Both garnered All-UCHC accolades as juniors, with Chivers earning a spot on the Second Team and Lahey collecting an Honorable Mention. The no-nonsense defensive duo was reinforced by crop of young, but talented skaters. Sydney Harris’21 appeared in all 30 games, one of just two rookies on the team to accomplish that feat, and dished out 12 assists. Two of those assists came in a narrow 3-2 victory over Manhattanville in February, a performance that earned the Pueblo, Colorado, native UCHC Rookie of the Week.
Second-year defender Kiana Melvin ’20 opened the year on a strong note with six points in the first five games. That included a season-best three points (1g-2a) in the series opener at King’s. Her fourth multi-point game helped her earn a bid on the UCHC All-Tournament Team, as the Lewiston, Maine, product picked up two points (1g-1a) in the first-round romp of Utica.
Tiia Hertto ’20 played a valuable role by switching to the backend in her sophomore campaign, where she made 27 appearances. First-year skater Bella Hanson ’21 missed most of the season due to injury, but in just nine games flashed tremendous potential and will likely be re-inserted back into the lineup when healthy.
Elmira’s last line of defense was a 5-foot-6-inch brick wall. For the first time in her career, Crawford was the main option for the Soaring Eagles between the pipes, and she ran away with the opportunity. The standout senior set a plethora of program records, such as single-season marks for most wins (22), saves (622), and save percentage (.955). She stood on her head in the 62-save performance against Plattsburgh in November, was a keystone in a shutout win over Amherst and one-goal conference victories against both Manhattanville and William Smith in the regular season. Shutouts in the postseason against Stevenson and nationally-ranked Adrian, as well as her 41 saves in the NCAA semifinals against rival Plattsburgh State, were equally as vital to EC’s deep playoff run. The list of awards Crawford earned is a mile long and includes CCM/AHCA All-America Second Team, UCHC Goalie of the Year, All-UCHC First Team and nods on the UCHC and NCAA All-Tournament Teams.
Elizabeth Hanson ’21, a first-year goalie of Stoughton, Massachusetts, aided in Elmira’s unbeaten run through the UCHC schedule. The freshman appeared in four games, all against conference opponents, and posted a 0.60 goals-against average with 27 saves. She went 3-0-0 overall with a pair of shutout victories along the way.
The Class of 2018 graduates with a combined record of 92-17-8 across four seasons, which includes four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, two national runner-up finishes, and a conference title. The successes of these student-athletes – both on and off of the ice – have yielded a plethora of individual awards and program records, and as they move on the torch will be passed down to those returning to EC in 2018-19.
