ASU Women's Hockey 24-25 Season Preview

Friday, October 4, 2024
Written by Chase Beardsley
​Photo by Billy Wuneburger

Change comes to everyone and every team at some point. It leaves a chance to be better and improve. That’s what the Arizona State ACHA D1 women’s hockey team hopes to do with the moves they made over the offseason heading into a big 2024–25 season. After their best season in program history last year, they look to take another step toward their goal of winning an ACHA national title.

During the offseason, the team announced it would be leaving the WWCHL, meaning for the first time in program history, the Sun Devils wouldn’t be a part of the conference. After winning back-to-back WWCHL championships, it makes sense for the team as they easily dominated all of their conference foes last year, going 15-0-0 in regular season play against them. Then in the WWCHL playoffs, the team cruised to a second straight conference championship, only allowing three goals all tournament long.

In the opening round of the ACHA National tournament, the Sun Devils lost 5-0 to the eventual champions—Adrian College—forcing ASU into the elimination round against Maryville University. In a thrilling game, the Sun Devils scored two goals in the third period to dig out of a 2-0 deficit and force overtime. Then, now-senior forward Sam Murphy tipped a shot into the net to send the Sun Devils into the quarterfinals for the first time in program history. 

Facing five-time defending champions Liberty University in the quarterfinals, the Sun Devils scored two goals in the third period once again to take a 2-1 lead. Unfortunately, the Flames scored late in the third and again in the waning minutes of OT to eliminate the Sun Devils despite a stellar 70+ save performance by junior goaltender Quinn Eatinger.

In the offseason, outside of going independent, the team lost a lot of players, including Jill Ketchum, Berkleigh Radcliffe, Sami Lutsch, Logan Sutera, and Tristan Craig. However, perhaps the most detrimental losses were Maddie Pladson, who led the defense in scoring, and Anita Fleming, who led the team in goals and left the team late into the offseason.

To replace the losses and also get better, head coach Lindsey Ellis did some serious recruiting over the past year. There are 16 new players joining the Sun Devils team. Half of those players are forwards while seven of the players will join the blueline. Only one new goaltender was added to the team.

Looking at the forward group, a lot of the star players from last season will once again wear maroon and gold. Senior forward Sydney Paulsen will look to one-up the impressive 33-point season that she had last year. One of her linemates will return as well as the defending WWCHL MVP and sophomore forward Paige Ring heads into her second year with the team. As mentioned, Murphy will also return, looking to break Kat Jones’ goal program record.

Other returnees to the forward group include junior forward Bre Powell, who will return from an injury that held her out of the lineup since January, and junior forward Evelyn Olson, who looks to continue her second-semester red-hot scoring hand after scoring 10 points in her last nine games, and sophomore forward Liv Leavelle.

There are a lot of interesting names joining the forwards. Maybe the most interesting of them all is freshman forward Kyly Laybolt. The former RINK Hockey Academy forward brings some serious speed and offense to the team after scoring 20 points in 29 games with the Academy last season. Her first couple of weeks with the team have been great, and she’s already excited for what comes next.

“We’re all pushing each other on the ice, getting ready for this first game, and the team’s really good,” Laybolt said. “The culture, everything, the girls are great. So, it’s been a really good start as someone new here.”

Alongside Laybolt is a slew of new freshmen, eager to make an impact. Paige Brien, Emmersyn Stoddard, Taylor Bierlmeier, Kylie Brown, and Mara Draper will all try their best to crack the opening night roster against Grand Canyon University. A lot of the aforementioned players come from hockey academies in Canada, while others come from elite programs across the United States. All understand the mission of winning a championship title.

Meanwhile, two new sophomore forwards have joined the team. Sabrina Enright comes to the Sun Devils in her second year at ASU. Last season, she played with the Arizona Kachinas: the same program that many Sun Devils came from. Lula Swanson, on the other hand, is a transfer from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, an NCAA D-III school. Swanson obviously knows the tough play that comes from college hockey and has the talent to thrive in that environment. Adding her experience and skill to this Sun Devils team will only make it better.

On the blueline, sophomore defenseman Hannah Kunz will try to continue her development as one of the best defensemen on the team. She will be without her defense partner Pladson, so it’ll be interesting to see who is placed alongside her. Also returning are sophomore defensemen Mia Gervais, Sophie Fausel, and Amanda Benson, who are looking to further improve their play on the backend that was already exceptional last season.

Two players who will return from injury on defense are junior defenseman Jess Dorovenis and senior defenseman Elle McKenna. McKenna didn’t play after being concussed in the Denver series last year while Dorovenis hasn’t appeared in a game since the 2023 national tournament. As two of the older players on the blueline, they will look to mentor the younger defensemen.

Seven new players will help make up the blueline. Picking one that stands out is hard as all have looked good in practice. Freshman defenseman Kate Streek could be one to look out for after recording six points last season with the Okanagan Hockey Academy, a program that has produced talent of all levels, including Powell. Freshman defenseman Gracie Bagnall has also looked fantastic in practice, looking almost as fast as someone like Laybolt. She comes from the Delta Hockey Academy, which has given the Sun Devils many gifted players like Craig and Powell.

Other defensemen who will be joining the team are freshmen Madeline Christoff, Audrey Ju, Jorja Dezainde, Makena Ducklow, and Claire Bolen. All will help the Sun Devils’ blueline be deeper than ever.

In net, Eatinger returns for her third season with the maroon and gold. After leading the entire WWCHL in wins last year, she now turns her attention to the rest of the league. Eatinger will be tested this season as she will face opponents like Midland University, Adrian College, and McKendree University on a routine basis; but if she performs anything close to how she did last year, the Sun Devils will have one of the best goaltenders in the league again.

Since her 70+ save performance against the Flames, Eatinger has been working hard in the offseason to get better and better. She thinks her team has been getting stronger and stronger as well.

“I feel great,” Eatinger said. “I feel like we have the strongest team we’ve had ever since I’ve been here. Our team culture, our team dynamic is super strong. Everyone gets along. We have a really strong everything. It makes me super excited to play with them and see how we do.”

Fighting for the backup position will be sophomore goaltender Brooke Kimel and freshman goaltender Charlotte Reeves. Both have been worked hard by goaltending coach Evan Hauser in order to ensure the Sun Devils have options in the net for every scenario that could happen. It is vital to have multiple goaltenders you’re confident in to thrive in the ACHA, and the Sun Devils could have that with Kimel and Reeves.

Eatinger is excited to play with Reeves and Kimel. She sees them as strong teammates and knows that they’ll push each other to keep getting better.

“It’s been fun,” Eatinger said. “I think just our dynamic is like we all challenge each other, and I expect nothing less. I love working with them. They’re both really strong goaltenders, and they push me, I push them, and that’s all you ask for.”

Finally, the team has even made some new additions to the coaching staff. Former defenseman Sheridan Gloyd has returned to the program after spending last season coaching the Kachinas. Adding Gloyd to the bench is a smart move by Ellis. The former Sun Devil knows the team well and will help Ellis manage the large group of forwards. Lucas Lomax has also joined the team as the strength and conditioning coach.

It’s a lot of turnover and changes that have hit Ellis’ group. However, she’s confident that her team is better than ever before. Even though the amount of new faces can be a challenge, she likes her group heading into the season.

“It’s a little bit of a challenge,” Ellis said. “I think we’ve really made a step up with the level of player that we’ve brought in. So that really helps in terms of hockey IQ and not having to re-explain things over and over but in terms of learning who the players are and how they react to different things, that's our biggest challenge.”

The goal is still the same despite the new faces: To leave a legacy by winning a national title. With how close they got last season, the team can certainly challenge for one. With the switch to being an independent team, they’ll definitely be challenged like one that has those ambitions in mind.

“I think it’s really exciting this year being able to play people who are kind of in our skill range,” Laybolt said. “It’ll be exciting to play people that challenge us, rather than last year going with the flow and playing whoever. I’m excited to play some good teams and see what our team has to bring and hopefully come home with a national title.”

For Ellis, the goal will always be a national title. However, it takes multiple goals to reach the big one. So, to get prepared for a potential trip to St. Louis in March, the team set a goal to win as many games against ranked opponents to improve their rankings.

“We made a few goals together as a team,” Ellis said. “I thought it was really important that players are involved in that goal setting, so it was feasible. They felt like they had a hand in helping. One of those goals specifically was winning 70% of games against ranked opponents, which I thought was a very doable goal, very reachable goal.”

It’s a deep team that Ellis has put together, perhaps the deepest team the Sun Devils have ever had. It will be tested throughout the season but it could all pay off in March. For now, though, the team will set its sights on the Lopes this weekend for the season opener. It’ll be a season worth watching as excitement has never been higher for the Sun Devils. For Ellis and her team, however, it will be a season they hope ends with their names remembered forever.

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