Congratulations to the Girls' Varsity Hockey team on winning the WIHLMA (Women's Interscholastic Hockey League of the Mid-Atlantic) Miran Division Championship for the second year in a row.
Rye Country Day hosted the annual WIHLMA tournament, welcoming eight teams across two divisions to compete for the championship title. The Wildcats entered the tournament seeded in first place of the Miran Division.
In the semi-finals, RCDS competed against the number-four seed, Princeton High School. RCDS goalies Kelly Falcon '22 and Emma Budke '22 shut out their opponents with a decisive 8-0 victory. Caroline Keating '22, who led the Wildcats in points this season, scored two goals, with additional goals scored by Ryan Hammel '20, Sofia Medina '22, Phoebe Shapiro '21, Elizabeth Friedberg '20, Payton Caggiano '23, and Morgan Daily '23.
In the championship game against Princeton Day School, the Wildcats found themselves down 1-0 at the end of the first period. Freshman Payton Caggiano scored the equalizer in the second period, followed thirty seconds later by a breakaway goal by senior captain Olivia Friedberg. The Wildcats kept up the momentum, dominating the remainder of the game and holding off the opposing team to a 2-1 final score.
Girls' Varsity Hockey Head Coach Elizabeth Bennett reflected on the weekend, "We have a really special group of six seniors (Ella Birchenough, Elizabeth Friedberg, Olivia Friedberg, Ryan Hammel, Charlotte Price, and Sadie Silverman Guffey), all of whom have played four or five years on the team, and it was clear that the girls really wanted to win this one for them. Princeton Day came out flying and caught us on our heels a bit, but the energy and spirits were up on the bench the whole time. I am so proud of the determination of this team to fight back and win."