Girls’ hockey beats Benilde
Park wins against longtime rival
January 10, 2016
Senior captain Elena Basill said she felt excited to finally beat Benilde 2-1 on Dec. 8 after losing to them since she started playing hockey for Park in eighth grade.
“It felt really relieving and really good because we’ve never beat them before,” Basill said. “It was a competitive game that I really wanted to win.”
Sophomore Katie Fredrickson said winning tough games, like the Benilde game, are big achievements for the team.
“It was a really big accomplishment,” Fredrickson said. “It just feels super special, especially for hockey because they’re our biggest rivals.”
According to varsity head coach Chris Erickson, the girls worked hard during practices to collaborate, rather than working individually.
“(We’ve) been working on our competitiveness and working together as a team,” Erickson said.
Basill said she thinks practicing with the teammates they play with during games, also known as lines, helps the relationships between the players.
“We’ve been working with our lines,” Basill said. “We have really set lines and practice a lot within our lines which helps with the connection within the game.”
According to Fredrickson, the team mainly focused on staying active during practices and was prepared for a tough game.
“We just kept moving our feet and working hard and that was one of our goals for the year,” Fredrickson said. “We knew that was a big game and we came ready to play.”
Fredrickson said the girls practiced many different skills that helped prepare the team for the Benilde game.
“We just worked really hard leading up to the game every day in practice and we did a lot of drills,” Fredrickson said. “We worked on dumping the puck a lot and working as a team.”
The next game takes place at 7 p.m. Jan. 12 at Minnetonka High School against the Minnetonka Skippers. The team’s current record is 9-8.
