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Fairmont Area ready for girls hockey opener

FAIRMONT — The Fairmont Area Cardinals girls hockey team is looking to build on experience after a transitional year.

The Cardinals open their season earlier in the year than ever before with a game at 7 p.m. tonight against Albert Lea in the Martin County Arena.

The Cardinals graduated only one senior, goalie Emily O’Connor. This year the Cardinals have two seniors on roster, captain forward Anna Nordquist and forward Erica Serna, as well as one junior in captain Joni Becker.

Fairmont Area head coach Ashley Olson said she picked Nordquist and Becker as captains because of their work ethic and their ability to step up and help with new players.

“The two of them show a lot of effort,” Olson said. “They have positive attitudes and they help keep the team together. They work hard on and off the ice, and they have taken initiative to help girls coming in.”

Nordquist and Becker will help lead a team that ended last season with a 2-24 record, with both wins coming by one goal against Morris/Benson Area.

Olson said last year was a year of transition and hopefully this year’s team will complete it.

“We graduated four girls the year before and had only one player move up, so we were down bodies, which hurts when you have a small team,” Olson said. “We did the best we could to stay conditioned, but we had a difficult time keeping up with the teams we were playing for all three periods.

“Not only that, last year the team was really young and we kind of lacked some leadership. We brought in three new skaters and a goalie, so we’re back up in numbers.”

The new skaters this year are eighth-graders Corene Moeller, Chantel Moeller and Hannah Goerndt, while eighth-grader Hadley Artz is the new goalie.

Artz will compete in the goalie position with freshman Rachel O’Connor.

After a season where a lack of depth with only 12 players hurt the team, this season the Cardinals have 15 players on roster.

Nordquist and Serna are the two seniors, Becker is the lone junior and Broolkyn Meyer, Jonissa Neitzel and Tegan Roskop are the three sophomores.

Last year’s co-leading scorer with nine goals, freshman Mackenzie Householder (Becker also had nine goals) leads a group of nine eighth-graders and freshmen. Many of the freshmen — Macy Militello, Householder, Emily Sokolski and Rachel O’Connor — spent time on the ice for the varsity team last season.

Militello, Householder and Sokolski contributed 13 of last season’s 27 team goals, while O’Connor spent time between the pipes for the Cardinals.

Although this year’s team is loaded with young players, it is more experienced than last year’s.

“Experience as a whole at the varsity level helps,” Olson said. “You know the pace of the game and what to expect and that will definitely help us this year.”

With a group of young players continuing to grow and develop on the ice, Olson will lean on the experience of her three upperclassmen and a collection of players who continue to get better.

After opening the season tonight, Fairmont Area will travel to Mankato to face Mankato East at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at All Seasons Arena before returning to Martin County Arena next Tuesday night for a 7 p.m. clash with Windom Area.

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