Head Coach Brian Becker‘s squad options a fair mix of latest and returning expertise, as eleven newcomers be a part of eleven returning gamers in Hilbert’s first season of United Collegiate Hockey Convention (UCHC) motion.
Seniors Tia Card, Jacqueline Alaburda, and Caitlin Conrad can be relied upon to steer the Hawks of their fourth season with this system. The trio all enters their senior campaigns at Hilbert already holding program information
Card, who has backstopped the Hawks since she arrived in Hamburg, is this system profession chief in goalie video games performed and began (30-25), saves (1195), and save proportion (.875). The senior goalie from Burlington, ON additionally recorded the primary win in staff historical past with a 26-save effort towards King’s Faculty on 10/28/23.
Alaburda is the present program chief in blocked photographs (108) and photographs on objective (101), whereas she additionally ranks second in program historical past with 5 objectives and 9 factors. The San Jose, CA native completed third on final 12 months’s squad with 4 factors in eight video games performed.
Conrad, who has hung out enjoying each ahead and protection, is this system chief in video games performed (47), whereas she presently sits second in program historical past in blocked photographs (92) and seventh in factors (six). Her 4 profession objectives are essentially the most all-time by a Hilbert defenseman. Conrad led final 12 months’s staff with 49 blocked photographs and a .200 capturing proportion.
Izabelle Wagner, Kelsey Fuller, and Brooke Kwiecien will all look to observe up a 2024-25 season that noticed them every end prime 5 on the Hawks in scoring.
Wagner led the staff with 4 assists and 6 factors in her rookie marketing campaign. The Miles Metropolis, MT native fired 21 photographs on objective with a .095 capturing proportion.
Fuller tallied two objectives and an help in her first 12 months of collegiate hockey, whereas additionally main the staff with 55 photographs.
Kwiecien’s 4 factors a 12 months in the past matched her freshman level whole, as she enters her junior 12 months with eight profession factors, ok for fifth all-time in program historical past.
Wilkes switch Amelia Murphy will look to provide straight away on the Hawks’ blueline, whereas incoming freshman Victoria Battaglia will goal to make a right away influence offensively for Hilbert.
The 27-game marketing campaign kicked off on the street with an exhibition contest towards Buff State (October twenty second), earlier than the Hawks return to Hamburg to tackle Keene State (October thirty first and November 1st) and Niagara College Membership (Exhibition on November sixth) forward of the staff’s first two UCHC weekend collection’.
The primary convention video games in program historical past are set for November 14th and fifteenth on the street towards Utica, with the next weekend marking the primary dwelling league video games for the Hawks towards Albertus Magnus on the Nike Base.
Hilbert will observe these first 4 UCHC matchups with 9 consecutive nonconference contests, bookended by dwelling doubleheaders towards Buff State (December fifth and sixth) and Hood Faculty (January sixteenth and seventeenth). The staff will make journeys to tackle MCLA (December twelfth and thirteenth), Neumann College (January 2nd and third), and Buff State (January ninth) on this span to organize for five-straight weekends of UCHC motion to finish the common season.
January sees the Hawks host Elmira Faculty (twenty third and twenty fourth) and journey to Rye, NY for the primary two conferences with Manhattanville (thirtieth and thirty first) in program historical past, earlier than Hilbert finishes its marketing campaign with February collection’ towards Chatham (away on the sixth, dwelling on the seventh), Nazareth (dwelling on thirteenth and 14th), and St. John Fisher (away on twentieth and twenty first).
Hilbert can be working to earn a spot within the UCHC postseason which begins on Wednesday February twenty fifth, with the primary spherical winners shifting on to play within the semifinals on Saturday February twenty eighth, for the correct to play within the Saturday March seventh UCHC Remaining.
COACHING / SUPPORT STAFF
After becoming a member of the employees final season as an assistant, Brian Becker takes over because the staff’s Head Coach this season. Becker beforehand served because the St. Francis Excessive College Prep Hockey head coach from 2021-2024 following stints with Frontier Excessive College, the Lockport Specific (NAHL), Hamburg Hawks 18u AAA, and the Buffalo Stars (Empire Junior Hockey League).
Stephen Hurtubise will be a part of Becker behind the bench for his second season with the Hawks, whereas Matt Krug rounds out the teaching employees.
Previous to his first 12 months with Hilbert, Hurtubise served because the commissioner for the Northeast Collegiate Hockey League Division I since 2022 after guiding the Canisius College Males’s Ice Hockey staff within the American Collegiate Hockey League Division I from 2010 by way of to 2022. Since 2022, the Williamsville native has served because the director of hockey improvement with the Golden Griffins within the ACHL.
Krug brings expertise and a profitable pedigree to this system, because the Buffalo, NY native was a member of the 2013-14 NCAA Males’s Ice Hockey Nationwide Championship-winning Union Garnet Chargers.
Richard Luczak will function this system’s Director of Hockey Operations the place he’ll oversee all organizational points of this system, together with funds administration, journey coordination, and logistical planning.
Laura Dannebohm, J.D., M.A. will assist the hockey program by serving because the staff’s College Workforce Advisor. She is a further supply of educational assist and serves as a useful resource concerning educational points for the hockey student-athletes and coaches. Dannebohm’s affiliation with the division additionally creates a communication hyperlink between school, student-athletes, and coaches.
