As the old saying goes, "there's a first time for everything". However, for the Montclair State Women's Hockey team their first time being a regionally ranked team came much quicker than anticipated. Last season was a learning process, a pilot season that started with lot's of preparation and minimal results. With any new program there is a growing phase. But the Red Hawks look to have added some more depth to their line up and are recruiting heavily for next season.

With returners CJ Verrico, Jess Coyne, and Britt Meneghin already providing solid leadership and skill, the Hawks were able to secure Alex Tepper, Harper Sanderson, and Mikaela Schultz to their line up to provide much more depth overall. Not to be outshined, goaltender Emily Olshefski has provided sound and consistent goaltending all season so far. Not many programs would celebrate being named #9 in the regional ranking, but the program is still in it's infancy. To put things in perspective, the teams general manager and also the Men's programs head coach had this to say.

"It's pretty exciting news for our entire program, men's and women's included. I can equate it to walking before crawling as a child. Last season it was very difficult to just get the program off and running in the ACHA due to low numbers. Throughout the summer the women worked hard on keeping things together and coach Solomon and myself sent out over 1000 letters and emails to potential recruits around the country. My thinking was that this season we could add a few players and be more competitive, but it seems that the players that we added are significant difference makers. Next season is already underway in our eyes as we are hearing back from the 2016 graduates that are interested in coming here to play. It's pretty wild to watch the program expand so rapidly, I couldn't be happier for them".