RRCC has eyes on its third prize
Rainy River Community College takes pride in being the only school in the nation to advance to all four ACHA Division II national tournaments.
They’re even more proud of their back-to-back national titles.
“Our big whopping school of 300,” RRCC head coach Evan Amdahl said, noting the College of St. Scholastica is the next smallest school in the tournament with an enrollment over 2,500.
The Voyageurs (10-5-0) take to the ice Friday in Blaine in the hopes of capturing a third straight championship in Division II.
“Anybody can beat anybody,” Amdahl said. “We just have to go and be mentally prepared.”
After a 20-2-2 dominating championship season a year ago in Amdahl’s first season, the Voyageurs had a much tougher go of it this season. They finished just 4-4 before Christmas and returned to finish 6-1 after the break. The strong push down the stretch was the only reason RRCC has a shot at the title. Only the top three ranked teams in each region qualify for nationals.
“It’s way different going into nationals this year,” third-year player Stevie-Lee Langford said Monday at practice. “I want it way more and I know the team wants it more, too.”
That won’t make it any easier, however. Two teams from the East Region — Northeastern (17-0-0) and Delaware (12-0-0) — are undefeated, and the Voyageurs are 0-2 this season against South Dakota State University (14-4). Rival St. Scholastica (9-7-1) and Vermont (10-6) are the other two teams in the tournament.
“It’s crazy how much closer we’ve gotten from the first half to the second half,” Langford said. “And I think that’s helped a lot.”
Brenley Anderson leads the Voyageurs with 30 points (19 goals, 11 assists), followed by Langford (16G, 11A), Courtney Scholler (6G, 11A) and Kyla Thorne (4G, 6A). No other Voyageurs finished the regular season with more than six points.
In goal, Kelsey Fuerst posted a 6-4 record with a 3.3 goals against average and .900 save percentage. Katie Stearns arrived in the second half of the season and went 4-1 with a 2.21 GAA and .930 save percentage. Amdahl hadn’t made a decision Monday on who would start the first game, but he’s confident in both.
“They’re both doing really well,” he said, noting the save percentages. “You’ll take that out of any goalie.”
After finishing fourth three years ago, the Voyageurs have put together two championship seasons. A third would be icing on the cake for Langford, who got to the point with her guess on the outcome.
“This is going to be my third one,” she said.
