RETURN TO THE ICE ­— Members of the Fairmont Area Cardinal women hockey staff opening the season by taking part in host to Mankato West at 7 p.m. Friday evening at Martin County Arena in Fairmont embody, entrance row (l-r): Reese Olson, Kate Hagen, Addison Folkerts, Abi Sundeen, Ilana Moeller, Jozie Hoefker, Shaye Dietz, Madison Sokoloski and Maia Goerndt. Back row: Bella Newville, Alexandra Martin, Karissa Newville, assistant coach Josh Newville, Keara Flanagan, head coach Eric Householder, Frankie Martin, supervisor/statistician Brynn Gustafson, Charli Clow, Bella Larson, Lily Truesdell and Brittney Lopau. (Photo by Greg Abel)

FAIRMONT — The Fairmont Area women hockey staff is making ready for its 2023-24 marketing campaign this week.

Coming off a season the place the staff completed with a document of 4-17-3, Cardinals’ head coach Eric Householder supplied some perception into the objectives he has for the staff and himself over the offseason.

“My main expectation is to be a team on and off the ice. That’s something that we want to improve on from last year and they know that the expectation is to give it everything they have,” Householder mentioned. “We have had some challenging years with some of our opponents and this year, with a smaller roster, it’ll be a bit of a learning experience.”

One purpose for the smaller roster is the Cardinals take the ice with out three key contributors from final season. They shall be with out their second-leading objective scorer Hannah Goerndt, beginning defender Corene Moeller and beginning goalkeeper Hadley Artz — who all graduated final spring.

Due to the lack of a lot skilled play, Fairmont Area shall be seeking to its returning main scorer and senior ahead Bella Larson to tackle much more of the offensive load.

Last season, Larson completed with 11 objectives and 4 assists and can look to fellow senior ahead Karissa Newville for assist.

As a junior final winter, Newville contributed 5 objectives and 5 assists because the staff’s third main scorer. She shall be joined on the ice this season by her freshman sister Bella Newville, who performs on the defensive facet of the world.

“I have seen some speed improving on the ice. Karissa Newville would be the one who has kind of stood out to me from last year with her increase in speed and her stick-handling improving slightly from last year to now. I think overall the attitudes and mentality of our players are where we want them to be,” Householder mentioned.

Keeping issues inside the household, Karissa and Bella, shall be joined by their father Josh Newville, who has taken on the function of assistant coach this yr alongside Householder.

With losses at such essential positions, Householder shall be seeking to his upperclassmen to step up.

“It’s going to be a little bit of a learning curve, you know we are down to one goalie and a smaller line, so you know I am really going to expect the seniors to lead the team throughout the season,” Householder mentioned. “We have six seniors, so I expect them to lead and show the rest of the team what and how we are supposed to do things.”

It shall be junior Ilana Moeller in objective for the Cardinals this season. As a sophomore a yr in the past, Moeller performed in 16 video games for a complete of 153 minutes of ice time. She had 87 saves and simply 14 objectives conceded for a save charge of 86.1 p.c.

Moeller will probably be requested to play double the video games and almost 10 occasions as many minutes for the Cardinals this season.

There aren’t many new faces relating to the staff, however one is junior Charli Clow, who’s coming again to the game after not taking part in for a number of years. Clow shall be taking part in ahead for the Cardinals this season.

Fairmont Area women hockey will take the ice for the primary time Friday on the Martin County Arena with the opener set to start out at 7 p.m. because the Cardinals face Mankato West in a nonconference sport.