St. Scholastica warmed up to its NCHA Slaats Cup semifinal series against Lake Forest College by scoring 20 goals last weekend in two wins over Finlandia University.
It won't be so easy at Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse in Lake Forest, Ill., for a two-game series starting at 7 p.m. today.
The seventh-ranked Foresters (20-4-1) had a 16-game unbeaten streak snapped last weekend by NCHA regular-season champion Adrian and own the league's top special teams unit. Sophomore Amy Budde (17 goals, 19 assists, 36 points) and junior Olivia Spellmire (15-19-34) lead the team in scoring and freshman goaltender Jacque Rogers has the second-best save percentage in the league at .937.
The Saints (13-10-2) lost three meetings and tied one against Lake Forest this season. Duluthian Alexia Klaas is coming off an 11-point weekend in which she posted back-to-back hat tricks. Sierra Hanowski, who was named Thursday to the All-NCHA first team, had nine points last weekend and is one assist shy of reaching 50 for her career. Freshman goalie Lexi Thomeczek has taken over between the pipes and posted a league-best .938 save percentage.
If the teams split the series, a 20-minute minigame will follow Saturday's game. The winner advances to next week's conference finals.
