Medway-Ashland Girls Hockey Looks to Tighten Up

In their first seven years of existence, the Medway-Ashland girl’s hockey team has qualified to participate in state tournament play, and the team has no inclinations of stopping that streak this year. At the time of this writing, the team was 7-4-4, with just a handful of games left on their slate, and while their streak of venturing into the tournament shouldn’t be in jeopardy, Coach Kurt Carter is not taking anything for granted.
“The team has been up and down lately, so nothing is impossible when it comes to making the tournament, but we shouldn’t take it for certainty,” Carter said. “We’re just taking too long to get things going. It’s taking us two and a half periods to find our rhythm, and that’s not good.”
Last winter the Medway-Ashland girls went 10-7-2 earning a 22 seed in a field of 28. Luckily for them, they were playing good hockey as the tournament began and pulled a couple of upset wins in beating number 11 Marshfield 4-3 in overtime and number 6 Burlington 5-4 in another overtime victory before finally losing to Wellesley, who lost in the State Finals, 2-0 in the Quarter Finals.
After opening the season with a disappointing 0-3-2 start, the squad started to turn things around and find themselves on the verge of advancing into the tournament for the eighth straight season. However, Coach Carter believes his team needs to find themselves and play at a high level over the last six regular season games.
“As I said, we’re not taking anything for granted,” he said. “We tend to play to our opponents pace and seem willing to go along with them instead of breaking out. We have yet to find our own identity.”
Holliston’s Ashley Fondo, the team’s first line right-winger, continues to be the team’s top goal scorer through the first 15 games, but her line mate Gabriella Airosus has also been contributing. Senior left-winger and Medway athlete, Airosus is what her coach calls a playmaker. The Medway senior can score when needed to but is more of a finesse player.
Ashland’s Katie McGoff and Maddy Hornung, both juniors, are two athletes that the Coach is looking to raise their scoring. According to Carter, both girls are capable of netting 20 goals a season for the team.
Defensively Medway-Ashland gets most of its talent from Medway. Senior Rae Lambert brings a flexibility to play both offense and defense to the team. With speed being one of her best assets, Carter has been looking to utilize it in any way her can.
“Her top skill level is her speed,” the Coach said. “She literally has the ability to play offense for us if needed, but we’ve been using her speed to our advantage on defense.”
Medway also boasts the young talent of sophomore Sophia Theodore and freshman Lauren Norton on defense. Theodore has shed the freshmanitis from her system and now knows the level of high school hockey that is expected of her. In addition to having good size (5’11”) she has also developed a fantastic slap shot. Although only a first year player Norton has already began contributing. According to the Coach, she has a hockey IQ and has been playing at a competitive level. She has been a tremendous asset to the team and has handled the pressures well and is mature for a freshman.
Another great defender hailing from Medway is junior Gina Parlato, who not only has a great work ethic, but has shown she is a smart defender on the ice.
Between the pipes is sophomore goalie Rachel Gettings, who is a structurally sound athlete that has gotten stronger as the season has worn on.
“Through the program’s inception we’ve had only two goalies with Rachel being the latter,” Carter said. “She has saved us many a times this year as we haven’t been able to get going as a team, and that puts a lot of pressure on her at the start of each and every game.”
As Medway-Ashland looks to finish up the season on a high note and roll into the tournament playing good hockey Carter wants to warn his team that nothing is inevitable.
“Our last six games we played a pretty good mix of talented teams and not many are ones that we should automatically put in the win column until we actually play the game,” the Medway-Ashland Coach said. “This team could possibly be 15-0 if they just focused.”