Girls Hockey Team From Brick Heads To Nationals

BRICK, NJ -- They hit the road Wednesday morning, 15 players, four coaches, and assorted parents, siblings and hockey gear in tow. The destination? Burlington, Vermont, and, they hope, a national title.

The Brick Hockey Club's girls 16UAA team is competing for the USA Hockey Girls Tier II National Championship with games that begin Thursday and continue through the weekend.

"Getting so excited! On the road to Vermont!" tweeted Jan Campbell, mother of forward Erin Campbell, when the team stopped in Albany, N.Y., on Wednesday afternoon.

The team, comprised of girls from Toms River, Cape May, Jackson, Somers Point, Middletown, Woodbridge Point Pleasant, Englishtown, Howell, Allentown and of course, Brick, has been working hard to reach this goal, first winning its division in the Mid-Atlantic Women's Hockey Association and then capturing the regional championship in the Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association by defeating the West Chester Quakers twice -- 2-0 and 6-1 -- in a best-of-three series in Pennsylvania 17 days ago.

It is the fourth Brick Hockey Club team to compete at nationals in the club's storied history.

The team has three games in pool play scheduled over the next three days against teams from Vermont, Alaska and New Hampshire. There are teams from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, as well as Colorado, New York, and Chicago, Illinois.

From there, eight teams will continue into the wild card playoffs, with the semifinals scheduled for Sunday and the championship game on Monday, April 4.

Brick's pool-play schedule is as follows:

Thursday, March 31, noon vs. Vermont Shamrocks

Friday, April 1, 8 a.m. vs. Concord Capitals

Saturday, April 2, 4 p.m. vs. Alaska All Stars

The games will be broadcast on FAST Hockey.com, which requires a subscription.

The team's roster: Kate Becker, Brick; Sarah Braslavets, Englishtown; Katelyn "Kat" Brezniak, Toms River; Cassandra Campbell, Point Pleasant; Erin Campbell, Jackson; Tabitha Franceschini, Brick; Sarah Gutt, Middletown; Caitlyn Keenan, Howell; Karli Lafferty, Cape May; Sabrina Madsen, Allentown; Lucia McGuire-Pettersen, Jackson; McKenna Naumchik, Somers Point; Amber Spearnock, Woodbridge; Kyley Toye, Brick; Alexandra Urbanski, Jackson. Coaching Staff: Cindy Toye, Jay Francescini, Chris Naumchik, Aimee Billington.