Women's Hockey Focused Despite Great Start
Jeff Kassouf
Issue date: 11/20/08 Section: Sports
The Utica College women's hockey team stands at 3-1-1 after Saturday's tie against SUNY Potsdam, which is now ranked eighth in the country. Most of the media buzz surrounding the team has come from a last-second overtime win against then No. 1 SUNY Plattsburgh on Nov. 8, but Coach Dave Clausen understands that a lot of work still lies ahead.
"From a media or spectator standpoint, we beat the No. 1 team in the nation," he said. "But, we did it in November. We have to worry about what is the next step."
Clausen stressed that the team still has a lot to improve upon, starting with the fundamentals and learning to be "more detail-oriented." He also said that the women on the team know what they are capable of and are not satisfied with just one big win.
"The girls in the program already know that they can play with those teams because we have done that," he said.
The Pioneers arguably play in the toughest conference in the country, the ECAC West. Four of the top ten teams in the country play in the conference, leading Clausen to call it a building block toward the national tournament. The way he sees it, the national tournament is only a "bonus" to a conference championship.
"The way it works out, the conference tournament could be harder than the national tournament," he said.
Moving forward, Utica travels to Neumann College this weekend for back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. Neumann is an improved team that is coming off of two big wins over SUNY Oswego, and Clausen is just hoping to get maximum points out of the road trip.
The Pioneers return home on Friday, Dec. 5 to take on SUNY Cortland at 7 p.m. The second game of the home-stand at the Utica Memorial Auditorium starts the following day at 3 p.m. featuring the same matchup.
"From a media or spectator standpoint, we beat the No. 1 team in the nation," he said. "But, we did it in November. We have to worry about what is the next step."
Clausen stressed that the team still has a lot to improve upon, starting with the fundamentals and learning to be "more detail-oriented." He also said that the women on the team know what they are capable of and are not satisfied with just one big win.
"The girls in the program already know that they can play with those teams because we have done that," he said.
The Pioneers arguably play in the toughest conference in the country, the ECAC West. Four of the top ten teams in the country play in the conference, leading Clausen to call it a building block toward the national tournament. The way he sees it, the national tournament is only a "bonus" to a conference championship.
"The way it works out, the conference tournament could be harder than the national tournament," he said.
Moving forward, Utica travels to Neumann College this weekend for back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. Neumann is an improved team that is coming off of two big wins over SUNY Oswego, and Clausen is just hoping to get maximum points out of the road trip.
The Pioneers return home on Friday, Dec. 5 to take on SUNY Cortland at 7 p.m. The second game of the home-stand at the Utica Memorial Auditorium starts the following day at 3 p.m. featuring the same matchup.
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