Former Spartans Goalie Finishes First College Season—With a Bang

After making quite a name for herself as the Spartans girls hockey team’s star goalie, 2011 grad and recently returned from New York after playing in the NCAA Women's Ice Hockey Tournament.

“[Making it to the tournament] was a huge deal for our team,” Hendrickson told Richfield Patch. “This was the first time in history that the Concordia women’s hockey team had never made it that far.”

The team lost to Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in the quarterfinal round, but Hendrickson said she never expected to play in that game.

“We lost in the MIAC championship game to Gustavus [Adolphus College], and we thought that was our last game,” she said. “We were sad that the season was over, but our coach came in and said we still had a chance to get the bid to play in New York.”

By winning the MIAC championship, Gustavus was already in, however, the NCAA selects a small amount of teams based on their performance throughout the season.

“We found out the week before the game that we were going,” Hendrickson said. “It was so exciting.”

In addition, Hendrickson said the loss to RIT made her realize what a strong team she was playing with. Why? RIT went all the way to become the NCAA Division III champions and will likely switch to Division I next season.

“To be able to compete at the level, and against such a talented team was unbelievable,” she said. “The best part is that we were beating them until half way through the second period.”

Looking Back on Her Time as a Spartan

With the after Hendrickson’s final season, she said she was sad but not surprised.

“I wasn’t surprised when I found out,” she said. “Honestly, I was surprised we had enough players to put a team together my senior year.”

As far as the drama surrounding who was to blame for the Richfield team’s demise, Hendrickson said it wasn’t any one person or thing that deserves all the blame.

“There’s always been that drama between parents and coaches and athletic directors, because you can’t please everyone. They’re never going to eliminate that problem,” she said. “The fact is that it’s sad that [the girls hockey] tradition didn’t continue.”

Finding Her Legs As A Cobber

, Hendrickson said the transition to college play was difficult.

“It was hard for me to go from playing every game of my senior year to watching,” she said. “But it helped me focused on working hard to get to where I was playing more often.”

On the other hand, Hendrickson said her strong and talented team was also a major adjustment.

“It’s kind of the opposite of playing for Richfield last year, where we were being dominated in every game,” she said.

The Concordia Cobbers started the 2011-12 season off on a good foot, according to Hendrickson, but after the Christmas break the team suffered more loses than anticipated. However, after shaking off the disappointment, the team went on to be undefeated in their eight final games, with Hendrickson playing in seven of them.

“We have a lot of depth on the team,” she said. “Everyone is so talented and I was lucky to have such as strong team in front of me.

Hendrickson plans on finishing her four-year degree at Concordia and is working on a double major in mathematics and physics. After graduation, she plans to pursue an engineering degree.