By Jim Rueda
MANKATO — It’s no secret that the Mankato East/Loyola girls hockey team has struggled the last few seasons. They’ve lost a lot more games than they’ve won and it’s been difficult finding experienced players to field a Big Nine Conference caliber team.
All that may be about to change, and freshman Savannah Quandt is excited to be on an East/Loyola team that just might turn the corner this year.
“We’re really looking forward to this season,” Quandt said after practice last week. “We’re bringing back a lot of players who have experience on varsity so we think we can be a lot more competitive this year. Our goal right now is to finish with a .500 record.”
A .500 record would be significant improvement for a team that went 3-23 a year ago. Quandt says her optimism is well-founded as the team returns 12 players with varsity experience — most of whom have been on the team at least three years.
“We’ve already talked about some of the goals we want to reach this year,” Quandt said. “We want to give up less than 120 goals, and we want to score at least 100 goals ourselves. We believe we have the talent to make that happen.”
Quandt figures to be one of the Cougars’ key players in 2009-10. Although she played a lot of softball over the spring and summer she had time to regularly attend a Community Olympic Development Program (CODP) in the cities during the offseason.
“We’re looking for a good season from Savannah,” East/Loyola head coach Nate Fuller said. “She has the right attitude, she works hard in practice, she wants the team to be successful.”
Similar to Quandt, Fuller is optimistic about the upcoming season.
“We have 24 players out for hockey and that’s up a little bit,” he said. “The big thing is that the core of our team returns. We won’t have to spend as much time starting at Square 1 this year. We have some younger players who are going to make an impact, too.”
Three of the newcomers who should contribute right away are Mariah Kragh, Rebecca Kolstad and Tatum Schultz. Captain Sara Biesterveld is one of the top returnees along with defenders Katy Snyder and Bobbi Sellner.
Melany Anderson is also back to begin her first full season in goal after taking over the position late last year.
“Melany has done a lot to improve and make herself a better goaltender,” Fuller said. “You can already see she’s better between the pipes than she was last year.”
The Cougars kick off the season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday with a game against Albert Lea at All Seasons Arena.
