Bailey Hoch, senior in kinesiology and health, put away her skates and hockey gear after her senior year in high school.

The thought was she would never play the sport again.

She decided to pick the gear up for intramural hockey her sophomore year.

“You don’t realize how much you miss it until you put it down,” Hoch said.

Hoch was getting off the ice after an intramural game as the club hockey team were coming on.

She stopped. 

This was the place for her. 

She found herself surrounded by women eager to know more about herself and her history of participating in hockey.

By last year, Hoch was playing with the club team for her senior year. Hoch also holds the team’s secretary position.

However, unlike Hoch, Hannah Bangen, senior in materials engineering, didn’t take any seasons off, continuing the trend once getting to college. Bangen’s older sister was a senior member on the club’s team when she joined during her freshman year.

“It was nice to know someone on the team,” Bangen said.

It would be the first time that the two sisters would play on a hockey team together.

Now Bangen, Hoch and other teammates are looking to their final season to have some success.

From new coaches to new competition, many of the team members spoke of their excitement for the season ahead.

The team will have a new head coach, Andre Larenzie, junior in supply chain management, that Bangen believes will help the team get to their end goal, which is nationals.

“This is the first year that no one on the team has been to nationals,” Bangen said. “We all want to make it.”

With the team’s first game on Sept. 30, new competition will be introduced when the team plays Nebraska.

The match-up against Nebraska is not the only new competition added to the schedule for the team. The team will also be traveling to Canada to participate in a tournament.

“We’ve never played in a tournament before,” said Sophie Puente, president of the club and senior in dietetics.

One of the expectations that club treasurer Sara Schectman, senior in animal science, has for the team is that they will win at least one of the series against their opponents since they play all of their opponents twice.

The team looks for the chemistry to help with winning games this season as the team’s chemistry is a high point. 

“When the team is getting along, we’re having fun, we win games,” Puente said.

Puente admits that when a disconnect between her and her teammates occurred last season, it lead to some games lost.

“We work together as a team,” Puente said.

Schectman described the team being really close with one another like a family atmosphere.

“Most of us live with each other,” Schectman said.

Schectman, who hails from Connecticut, credited the club as a way for her to make friends and to help her become emotionally stable while away from home.

Hoch said that she felt blessed being on the team with her teammates and enjoyed learning her teammates’ different interests, passions and majors.

Bangen admitted that even though her and her teammates’ attitudes can affect each other, saying that attitudes can rub off on one another, but Hoch believed that everyone has the right attitude for the impending season.

Puente said that the club has a lot of seniors and leaders that could lead to a successful season, but are hoping to fill eight spots with newcomers at tryouts last week. 

“The club is geared towards girls with hockey experience,” Hoch said.

Puente hoped to have girls be added to the team that had the basic hockey skills but also know how to work within a team.

“We’re looking for girls who have hockey knowledge at this level,” Puente said. “It’s exciting to go there and show them what we got.”