The No.15 ranked Spartan club hockey team started their season on Sept. 12 with a win against the No.7 ranked University of Miami, 5-4. The 25-man team has played five games since their match-up against the Hurricanes and currently holds a record of 2-3-1.
“We have some great things to look forward to this season,” said senior captain Matt Fenby. “This is only our fourth year of existence, and since my freshman year, we have gone from a team that doesn’t have ranked opponents on its schedule to being ranked number 15 ourselves.”
The team, which participates in the Division III American Collegiate Hockey Association, or ACHA, opened its inaugural year in the Southern Collegiate Hockey Conference with two losses in a series against No.2 ranked University of Central Florida on Sept. 26 and 27. However, they are excited to build on the new found success of last season, where they received their first ever top 15 ranking in the team’s short history.
The top 15 teams in the Southern region receive a ranking every year, according to Fenby. Out of those top teams, only the top 10 are guaranteed a trip to postseason play.
By stacking up their competition this year, the team hopes to make some noise on the regional rankings and break into that elite 10 for the first time in school history.
They’ll have their work cut out for them as the Southern regional title holders and current first place team in the league, Florida Gulf Coast University, travels to play the Spartans at their home stadium, the Brandon Ice Sports Forum, on October 10.
However, Fenby believes that the veteran leadership on the young team has created an atmosphere that is helping the team play the best that it has played in its four year history.
The stalwart defensive pairing of seniors Brendan McDonnell and Corey Tudor have done an excellent job thus far of complementing four year starting goalie Greg Lemrow. On the offensive end of the ice, returning leading scorer junior Evan Stawarz has received a new boost of attacking pressure with the help of rookie sensation Matt Antonacci. Fenby believes that these players, along with newly-minted senior Assistant Captain Joe Tully could be the key to the Spartans success this year.
The Spartans will host Life University for their homecoming game at the Brandon Ice Sports on October 17 in what Fenby says will be a “packed stadium.” The team are going to have a set of fan buses bring students from campus to the Brandon Ice Sports Complex and the team expects a great turnout.
“We had a huge turnout for our big games against The University of Miami and UCF,” Fenby said, “and the team has only played better as a result of that. It’s a lot of fun to get loud and there’s always a ton of Spartan gear for sale. We really appreciate all of the student support.”
Chance Smith can be reached at chance.smith@spartans.ut.edu