Another year, another state title. BGH has now won four of the last five state titles, and there is no reason to believe it will stop here. In the section finals, Blake beat Breck 5-4. In the state quarterfinals, Blake beat Alexandria 3-0. In the state semifinals, Blake defeated Northfield handily 4-1, with goals scored by Lily Delianedis ‘20, Madeline Wethington ‘19, Lucy Burton ‘17, and Addie Burton ‘20. In the State Finals, Blake beat Saint Paul United 6-2. After a quick goal from Joie Phelps gave Saint Paul United the lead, Blake fired back with six more goals from Haley Konowalchuk ‘17, Delianedis, Grace Johnson ‘20, Audrey Wethington ‘20, Izzy Daniel ‘19, and Burton, respectively.
When asked about her expectations and hopes for the tournament, Kyra Willoughby ‘18 says, “From the beginning of the season, our goal was to win state again. . . we were really looking forward to making more memories at the X and succeeding in the tournament”. Even with these very high goals and expectations, Delianedis gives insight on why Blake Girls’ Hockey was able to be so successful, saying, “We worked hard every day in practice, and gained trust in one another, making us a stronger team. This really created a one-of-a-kind, positive team atmosphere and community that made me feel like we could win state because I knew our bond between the players and coaches would be hard to break.”
Blake’s unprecedented dominance will surely continue, as even with three seniors graduating, BGH has much remaining talent in young players. The team has an astonishing six players committed to college excluding the senior class, illustrating how young this team really is. Delianedis, a freshman, won player of the game in the state finals.
With such a young team and continued dominance, questions of whether BGH belongs in Class A or Class AA have begun to arise. Blake beat Edina during the regular season, the #1 seeded and state winner of Class AA. No one was willing to comment on whether they should be moved up to AA or not, but head coach Shawn Reid says, “My expectation for the state tournament was for the girls to continue their strong level of play. . . We were ranked #1 in the preseason and held that ranking throughout the whole season culminating with a state championship. [It] can’t get much better than that.” The seemingly unwavering confidence with which BGH won the state championship still begs the question: Should BGH move up to class AA?
Another important aspect of the move to class AA is BGH’s rivalry against Breck. Blake has always had very tight and contested games with Breck; in fact, we only won by 1 goal against Breck in the Section Finals, while the team won by 4 goals against Saint Paul United in the State Final. If we moved to Class AA, Breck could prove a dangerous competitor in the state tournament. Either way, look forward to seeing more fantastic games and titles from Blake Girls’ Hockey.
