Winter Sports Recap

The Men’s Ice Hockey Team finds itself tied for fourth place in the Hockey East standings and poised for home ice in the Hockey East playoffs if they are able to finish hot. While they need a little help to pass Boston University, this season has been impressive as the team has relied on big contributions from freshmen, with the biggest impact coming from starting goaltender Jon Gillies ’16. Mark Jankowski ’16, Nick Saracino ’16, and John Gilmour ’16, as well as another solid offensive and defensive season by Ross Mauermann ’15 and Shane Luke ’15, leave hope that the young legs will stay fresh for the playoff push. Derek Army ’14 and Steve Shamanski ’14 have provided offensive production beyond expectations and are poised to take over leadership roles in the coming season. Inconsistency late in games has hampered the team this season, allowing points to slip away late in games. This is the only drawback the young team has shown thus far.

The Men’s Basketball Team is starting to play more consistently as they get deeper into the Big East schedule. With a good start to the non-conference games, there was hope in Friartown that the team would be able to compete and win once conference play began despite the lack of healthy, eligible scholarship players. With a disappointing finish to out of conference play with losses to Brown and BC, the team limped into the conference matchups, but has started to play better as of late with big contributions by Bryce Cotton ’14. If the team hopes to continue to improve, Kadeem Batts ’14, Vincent Council ’13, and LaDontae Henton ’15 need to increase their production in order to help Cotton. The team has the starters to make a push and win. However, the bench needs to step up their contribution to make a more balanced attack. 

The Women’s Ice Hockey Team, much like the men’s, is having a successful season thus far in Hockey East despite a very young roster. The team is positioned third in the tightly contested conference as Boston College and Boston University find themselves comfortably on top. Molly Illikainen ’16 has been a bright spot all season and has consistently seen her name at or near the top of the scoring list for the team. Nicole Anderson ’13, Corinne Buie ’14, and Haley Frade ’15 are all in the top four for team scoring. This is a testament to the depth of the team as a member of each class is amongst the leaders on the team. Sarah Bryant ’16 has taken a strangle-hold of the crease as she won the early season goaltender competition with her stellar play. The Lady Friars have positioned themselves well for another deep run in the Women’s Hockey East playoffs, hoping to avenge their loss in last season’s championship game.  

The Women’s Basketball Team has played with a  lot of heart this year under first year Head Coach Susan Robinson Fruchtl. A slow start has proved difficult to overcome, but the team has seen success in overtime as of late, defeating no. 25 Villanova in overtime and Pittsburgh in double overtime. These games have proven to be character wins, as the team looks to build off of them heading into their matchup with no. 3 Connecticut.  Symone Roberts ’13 and Tori Rule ’15  have provided solid guard play and lead the team in scoring, while Chanise Baldwin ’15 and  Brianna Edwards ’13 have anchored the Lady Friars in the defensive half of the court. 

The Track Team has embarked on its indoor season and continues to set the pace.  In the two team competitions this semester, the men have come in fourth and seventh in meets of nine and eleven teams respectively. The women have finished in fourth and eighth in the same tournaments. At the URI Invitational, the men’s and women’s distance medley teams each took home first place for the sweep. Standout performers include Emily Sisson ’14 and Grace Thek ’14 on the women’s side, and Nik Andrews ’14 and Dominic Channon ’13 on the men’s side. The team looks to build on recent performances for a successful conclusion to the season.

The Men’s and Women’s Swim Teams are trying to stay afloat this winter season, as the men are out to a 2-2 record and women are 1-3. These records include a sweep against Holy Cross in an effort led by John Fatigati ’15 and Justin Tse ’15 on the men’s side who each won three events, and  on the women’s side by Kelly O’Neill ’15, Leia Federiconi ’15, and Jillian Mullany ’15 who all won two races. The team’s performance is trending upwards as the season swims along.