The ISU women’s hockey club is off to a slow start after winning the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II National Championship a year ago, but the team has improved to 4-6, after starting the season 0-4.

The team took on North Dakota State University and Rainy River Community College in the first two weekends of the season. The two opponents are ranked first and second, respectively, in the Division II West Division.

Falling to North Dakota State by scores of 3-0 and 5-4, the team aimed to turn things around against Rainy River Community College, but lost by scores of 2-1 and 5-2.  

“A lot of girls were still riding the high of being champions and thought we would cruise through the season,” said coach Dustin Herbert, sophomore in chemical engineering. “Everybody is gunning for us after last season’s success.”

Forward Millie Luedtke, who clinched the title last year with her overtime goal, picked up right where she left off. Luedtke, who serves as one of the team’s captains, has a team-leading seven goals, which also gives her the team lead in points with 11.

“We were feeling the pressure from other teams and our fans to pick up where we left off last year,” Luedtke said.

Despite starting 0-4, the team still had high hopes moving forward, especially heading into a two-game weekend match against Iowa. 

“Playing good teams early didn’t help us. We were just punched in the face by the number one and two teams in the country,” said forward Taylor Armstrong. “We played weaker teams early last year and beat up on them, which in result, raised our confidence.”

Following the 0-4 start, the team swept Iowa by scores of 7-1 and 4-2. With the two wins, the team started to catch some confidence and beat Wisconsin-LaCrosse 2-1, but fell by a score of 5-4 the next day, giving the Cyclones a 3-5 record through eight games.

The team has also seen production from freshman forward Hannah Bangen, who is second on the team with five goals. Abbey Leffler, a junior forward, is also off to a fast start with eight points.

Herbert believes the team doesn’t have any weaknesses, it just isn’t getting the bounces that the other teams are getting.

“We just haven’t been playing to our full ability, and I believe that this team is even better than last year’s team,” Herbert said. “The girls are hardworking, and they want to get back to winning every weekend.”

Luedtke and senior captain Jess Bangen agree with Herbert. Both said the big problem is that the team can’t finish the puck and score goals at the rate it wants to.

“One little breakdown on our end leads to a goal for the other team, and you can tell when that happens because we just sort of let up, which leads to more goals by the other team,” Bangen said.

Heading into a two game set against University of Minnesota-Duluth, with a 3-5 record, the team was hoping for a sweep to get back to a .500 record. Highlighted by a Luedtke hat-trick, the Cyclones won the Saturday night contest and felt confident heading into Sunday’s game.

Unfortunately, after allowing two early goals, the team couldn’t regroup and fell by a score of 2-1. This brought their record to 4-6 with 12 games left in the regular season.

“We have realized that we are running out of time in the season,” Bangen said. “If we don’t turn things around, we can kiss [nationals] goodbye.”