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St. Cloud State University
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Women's hockey team improving by the week
By Ben Birnell
Published:
Thursday, January 23, 2003
Good things appear to be on the horizon for the SCSU women's hockey team this weekend as they take on WCHA rival Bemidji State University.
For one thing, the Huskies are only three points behind BSU for the fifth and final spot in the WCHA Final Five, meaning a weekend sweep over the Beavers would put the Huskies into the final spot.
"We're still in control of our own destiny," SCSU head coach Jason Lesteberg said. "Every game we play we want to put ourselves in a position to win and obviously we want to come out on top."
Needless to say, Lesteberg isn't looking past this weekend's series against BSU as he and his players look to slowly climb the proverbial WCHA ladder one rung at a time.
"It would be huge for us in the conference standings to pick up some points and move up higher, but [Bemidji State] is a good team."
Lesteberg went on to say that the two teams had a great battle in early October in which St. Cloud split the series with the Beavers, losing the first game 2-1, while the Huskies came back to win the second game 4-2.
"We need to come out and play our systems and execute our game plan," Lesterberg said.
Despite having the lowest goal total in the league, SCSU has relied on a few of its players as of late to guide them along.
Sophomore forward Carrie Holldorf leads the team with 18 points on the season. Her five goals and 13 assists have helped SCSU get some points on the board. Holldorf, a native of Glenwood City, Wisc., had seven goals and five assists during her freshman season at Providence College.
"We're looking for people to either put the puck in the net or set it up and Carrie is doing a great job doing that," Lesteberg said.
Lesteberg went on to say that he believed Ashley and Kelly Stewart were doing a great job contributing to the team. The latter Stewart's seven goals and seven assists put her second behind Holldorf on the team scoring list and leads the team among all freshmen scoring. Sister Kelly's strong defensive play has also been a big contribution to the Huskies' success as of late.
The play of two-time All-WCHA defenseman Kobi Kawamoto has also caught the eye of Lesteberg.
"I think Kobi is getting back into her zone where she can help both offensively and defensively," he said. "She's the type of player that likes to jump up into the play and we want her to do that every opportunity she gets."
Kawamoto had a slow start to the 2002-03 season as she broke her leg in the first game before the regular season. Now she's back and Lesteberg feels she's returned to the form she should be at. During Sunday's game against Ohio State University, Kawamoto scored the game-winning goal on a back- handed wrist shot to help give SCSU the split in the series. The goal was Kawamoto's first of the season and marked an upside in Lesteberg's eyes. He said that Kawamoto's return to full strength is a boost for the team.
"She showed me some of the bruises she's got from blocking shots," Lesteberg said. "She's making the sacrifices that, as an individual, you have to make to help your team out. She's definitely the kind of player we want our players looking up to and that's why she's our captain."
Another bright spot for the Huskies is the play of senior goaltender Laura Gieselman. In the weekend series against OSU, Gieselman stopped 54 of the 56 shots she faced, earning WCHA Defensive Player of the Week. The Annandale native made 22 saves in Saturday's loss to OSU. She helped keep the Buckeye power play unit scoreless on three opportunities. On Sunday she returned to the net and gained a win while stopping 32 shots. For the weekend, Geiselman posted a .964 save percentage and a 1.00 goals-against average.
"We've been waiting for one goaltender to step up. With her being the senior, it was her job to lose. She's kind of stepped up lately and grabbed the position and obviously she's playing really well," Lesteberg said.
Kawamoto also had good things to say about Gieselman's performance during the weekend series against OSU.
"She's an amazing goalie," Kawamoto said. "She does everything well and she comes up with the second, third and fourth effort."
Gieselman said she felt her stellar performance has a lot to do with her being a senior and it being her last season playing hockey at the collegiate level. She also felt the rest of the team deserves some credit for her success in the crease.
"Last weekend, my defense was really helping me out a lot; they were picking up the loose players and the whole team was blocking shots, which is something that we haven't done in the last four years."
The Huskies two-game series against Bemidji State kicks off with a 2:05 p.m. start Friday in Bemidji. The two teams then meet Saturday for another 2:05 start. The Huskies then come home to the National Hockey Center for a six-game homestand against the University North Dakota, the University of Minnesota-Duluth and the University of Wisconsin.
