MAT-SU — It’s that time again. Hockey season has returned, and the Mat-Su Ravens High School girls team kicked off its season with a three-game trip to Fairbanks.

The Mat-Su Ravens are the varsity high school girls hockey team of the Valley. Due to the lack of female hockey players interested in playing girls league, the Ravens are a combination from all over the Valley. 

“I really enjoy it because it brings together girls all the way from Houston to Palmer, with homeschooled kids in between,” said senior goaltender Dominique Sheutter.

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While this concept of pooling players from all over the Valley presents the opportunity of the Ravens having an outstanding team, this is unfortunately not the case. This season the Ravens have a scarce roster of only 13 players, two of which are goaltenders, and four of which just began skating. Many people are still unaware that there is a high school girls team, even though this program has been running for four years.

As a result of being the only Valley team, the Ravens have a limited number of opponents to play. Anchorage, having more people, combines two high schools to create one girls hockey team, making three teams. There is Diamond/West, South/Bartlett and Service/East. In between the Valley and Anchorage there is Chugiak/Eagle River, and up north there is Fairbanks, which combines all schools like the Ravens. Although there are only five opposing teams, the Ravens have 22 scheduled games, so they play every team at least four times.

The Mat-Su Ravens played their first game in Fairbanks on Nov. 5. Playing against a team twice their size the Ravens held their own fairly well, but took a 4-0 loss. On Nov. 6, however, the team was back for vengeance and succeeded with a 2-1 victory. With a loss and a win the Ravens came into Saturday’s game feeling confident and equal with their opponents. In fact, the teams were so equal that even after going into a seven-minute sudden-death overtime they still came out with a tie.  

“It was rewarding to win the second game after losing the first, but it would have been even better to win the last game as well. We’ll beat them when they come to us next time,” senior Kaitlin Berberich said.

Although the Ravens have a lack of players they still persevered and pulled out a win in their first series of games. With the final game being Feb. 6 against the returning Fairbanks team, the Mat-Su varsity high school girls team has three months to improve and beat this team again.

Casey Branch is a sohpomore at Colony High School.