Women’s Hockey off to a Strong Start to the 2023-2024 Season

By Brooke Martindale Last updated Nov 2, 2023

The SLU Women’s Hockey team has an 8-1 record and is ranked sixth in the country. PHOTO CREDIT: C A Hill Photo

The St. Lawrence University Saints Women’s Hockey team has had a phenomenal start to their 2023-24 season. They currently have a record of 8-1, and were ranked sixth in the country in the latest edition of the national rankings.

The Saints have played consistently great hockey throughout the season, and it started with their 5-1 win against Mercyhurst in their first game of the regular season on Friday, Sept. 29. The next day, they beat Mercyhurst again, this time thanks to one of the greatest hockey comebacks ever. St. Lawrence was down 5-2 with under 1:30 remaining in the game, yet they managed to score three goals in that timespan to force overtime, where they then scored the game-winning goal.

The next weekend, they won two games in as many days against 15th-ranked Providence College, winning 7-2 on Friday, Oct. 6, and 2-0 on Saturday, Oct. 7. They then traveled to the University of Vermont for their next two games, losing to the 12th ranked Catamounts 6-2 on Friday, Oct. 13 but responding the next day with a 3-0 win.

In their next game, on Thursday, Oct. 19, the Saints beat RIT 2-1. Their next game was the start of ECAC competition, where the Saints took on Princeton on Friday, Oct. 27. The Saints beat the 14th-ranked Tigers 7-2 in an outstanding offensive performance for the team to improve to 7-1 and 1-0 in ECAC play.

On the next day, St. Lawrence played their highest-ranked opponent of the season, the 5th-ranked Quinnipiac Bobcats. The Saints put together an all-around great performance and made a statement nationally by beating the Bobcats 4-1, with Kristina Bahl ‘24 scoring the game-winning goal with 10:36 left in the third period. Before this game, the Saints were the 10th-ranked team in the nation, but this victor moved them up four spots to 6th overall.

On the season, Julia Gosling ‘24 has led the Saints in points thus far, scoring eight goals to go along with seven assists for 15 points overall. Abby Hustler ‘25 has scored 13 points on the season with six goals and seven assists, while Sarah Marchand ‘25 and Anna Segedi ‘24 have had 11 points each, Marchand with six goals and five assists, and Segedi with three goals and 8 assists. In goal, Emma-Sofie Nordstrom ‘26 has 213 saves for an impressive .938 save percentage on the season thus far.

Looking ahead, the Saints travel to RPI and then Union for games on Friday, Nov. 3, and Saturday, Nov. 4. Then, the Saints will play back-to-back games against crosstown rivals Clarkson, traveling to Potsdam to play at Clarkson on Wednesday, Nov. 8, and then hosting the Golden Knights at Appleton Arena on Saturday, Nov. 11.

Clarkson is currently 5th in the national rankings, one spot ahead of the Saints, meaning these will be two great matchups between two top six teams in the nation.