The Glenbrook women’s hockey team, which is made up  of girls from Regina, GBS, and GBN, is in the middle of a strong season, carrying a current record of 15-1-2, according to GBS junior Maddie Itagaki. Recently, the women took on Loyola, where they won in a close game, according to GBN’s Nicole Knudson.

The game against Loyola was a confidence booster and showed off the girls’ strong talents, according to head coach Steve Hamelin. Itagaki believes that this has been their most important game so far.

“They won last year, but we beat them this year,” Itagaki said.  “It was 4-2, and we won.”

According to Hamelin, the Glenbrook hockey team is only bound to get better. Hamelin believes that the team will only continue to show their skills.

According to Itagaki, the team’s season has been going well, and they hope to keep the strong record going as they get closer to State.

“We compete well with each other and were able to make great plays because of the skills of our players,” Itagaki said.

Itagaki beleives the the team will do well at state based on their record.

“We have kept a strong record, and I think we will continue  to as [State] gets closer,” Itagaki said.

The team was able to place first in the Scholastic Cup tournament this year, according to Hamelin. He believes that they have the potential to continue their achievements.

“The success was just getting the Scholastic Cup this year,” Hamelin said. “We went undefeated in the seeding round, so I think everything else now is really up to the girls, and we’ll take it as far as we can.”

Ranked number one in their bracket, the team is on their way to state and will have multiple games in the quarter finals. After that, the team hopes to make it to the semifinals, according to Hamelin.

“We’ve already qualified for state, [and] we are ranked number one in that bracket,” Hamelin said.

With returning and new players. Both Knudson and Hamelin agreed the team is one of the best groups with accomplishments across the board.

“We’ve got a great bunch of girls this year,” Hamelin said. “I think we have a really nice balance in that we have a strong returning core from last year. We have a nice balance because we’ve gotten an influx of freshmen.”

The team has strength in numbers and talent, according to Hamelin.

“The biggest success, I think, is just the strength and depth of our bench,” Hamelin said. “You know we are three lines deep in both our forwards and defense, so on any given game we [have] three lines that can go out and compete. We have the confidence [in all the] lines going out and [we] hold each other accountable to get the job done.”

Knudson emphasized how well the team has been cooperating this season.

“We’ve been working together really well, no one has really been hogging the puck,” Knudson said. “We’ve been working together as a team, like it’s not a one person team.”

With that being said, Hamelin believes that the girls have a way to go still.

“The biggest challenge is, obviously, not to get too far ahead of [ourselves],” Hamelin said. “[we have] to have them continue to be focused at the task at hand.”

The team plays next on Feb. 12 against Evanston at the Northbrook Sports Center.