Gustavus women's hockey dynasty looks to take the next step

ST. PETER, MINN. — They were the Golden Gusties of the gridiron in post-World War II lore. Lloyd Hollingsworth was Minnesota's second most-famous football coach, only behind the gentleman who happened to be coaching the Gophers at the time.

The Twin Cities newspapers of the 1950s covered the MIAC with gusto, and even a kid from the state's southwest prairie knew that "Holly'' was a reference not to Christmas but to the Gusties' football coach.

Lloyd Hollingsworth Field opened in 2007, three years after his death. It sits high on the hill that hosts the campus, and come October, the view of the fall colors down the Minnesota River valley is spectacular.

"Yes it is,'' Mike Carroll said. "Can't be a better place to watch a football game.''

These are new generations, though, with athletics for all, and about the time those trees along the river are at peak color, Carroll is fully involved in preparing another Gustavus women's hockey team to continue the program's brilliant tradition.

There are other dynasties for Gustavus — including 33 consecutive MIAC titles in men's tennis and 30 MIAC championships in women's tennis — but in a full-scale team sport, Carroll's teams have won 17 regular-season titles and 13 playoff titles in 24 seasons.

The 17th was clinched last weekend with two shutouts — 5-0 and 9-0 — over Concordia Moorhead that put the Gusties at 15-1 in the MIAC and 20-3 overall. That also increased goalie Katie McCoy's school record to 27 career shutouts, second most for any active goalie, men or women, in the NCAA.

The Gusties have developed a nonconference rivalry with Wisconsin-River Falls, the D-III power across the border. Gustavus lost two of three to the Falcons earlier in the season.

At the moment, Eastern powers Amherst and Plattsburgh [N.Y.] are 1-2 in PairWise Ratings, followed by UW-River Falls and Gustavus.

This should be the Gusties' 16th NCAA tournament. They have reached the final four eight times, losing in the semifinals in the first seven.

And then came last March in Middlebury, Vt. Gustavus blew out Plattsburgh 5-1 in the semis. It was trailing 2-1 in the last seconds of the final with Middlebury.

"The clock kept running before a faceoff and I asked for a review,'' Carroll said. "They put eight seconds back on the clock. We had 28 seconds.''

They needed 27.9 of those to get a 2-2 tie on a goal by Molly McHugh.

"It was a wild scramble, of course,'' McHugh said a few days ago. "The puck popped out to me. I shot it quick. It thought it was probably late.''

There was a long review. The Middlebury crowd was shouting its partisan view: No goal. It was determined there was one-10th of a second left.

Overtime.

"Katie [McCoy] was great in overtime, and we had our chances,'' Kayla Vrieze said, "… but they got the winner later in the overtime.''

So, the Gusties are back again and chasing the big trophy — Vrieze as a fifth-year senior defenseman with the season lost to COVID-19, and McHugh as a senior forward who plans for return for that extra COVID year in 2023-24.

The deal with women's hockey players is that they don't go off to juniors for two or even three years before taking on college competition.

"We go from high school to college,'' McHugh said. "I wouldn't want it the other way. You get a degree from a great college, you get to play a sport you love and have success, and then …''

Life goes on.

The Gusties had a frightening moment in the middle of this season. Heather Olinger, a defenseman from Prior Lake, suffered a serious back injury in a collision that took place vs. St. Benedict. She was unable to move.

"There were fears of the worst,'' Carroll said. "Thankfully, the surgeons were able to do a fusion to stabilize Heather's back. She's recovering.''

Olinger was able to attend a game a couple of weeks ago, which raised the spirits of teammates, Vrieze and McHugh said.

Why was Gustavus the choice in the first place, they were asked.

"Outstanding school, outstanding hockey,'' said Vrieze, from Eagan.

"I knew I wanted D-III hockey, I didn't want to go out East, and the coaches here made Gustavus an easy choice,'' said McHugh, who's from a hockey family in Minnetonka.

The players and Carroll were united in this thought: They have missed St. Thomas as an MIAC rival.

"Those were games with high emotion,'' Vrieze said. "There are still good teams in the MIAC. Augsburg beat us in overtime this season.''

The importance of Division III athletics to smaller private schools is being played out dramatically at Gustavus. The school has completed a $28.5 million renovation and expansion of the Lund Center, and now is trying to raise $17 million to redo its ancient fieldhouse.

"We have about 2,000 students and over 600 are in athletics,'' said Tom Brown, the athletic director. "It's 35 percent of our students.

"Athletics — music and other activities that lead to parental involvement — are really the lifeblood for a school like ours.''

New generations. Opportunities for all Gusties to be Golden.