On Nov. 8, the Royals hosted 2015 state participants, the Benilde-St. Margaret’s Red Knights.

Stella Haberman, junior, started the game off with her tenth goal of the season just 14 seconds into the first period. Over a minute later, Elena Basill, senior, took the Royals to a power play with a penalty for tripping. The Royals maintained the lead for the remainder of the first period.

“It was a super close game,” Haberman said. “[The key was] to shoot a lot and get it deep and as a team we needed to get a lot of shots, crash the net hard, and just play fast – play our game.”

Although the Royals had more shots in the first period, the Red Knights were just one behind. In the second period, the Royals fell behind in shots just as the Red Knights had, by one. In the third period the Royals had to defend the 13 shots against them, compared to their nine offensive movements on goal.

However, the Royals capitalized on their opportunities. Kylie Hanley, sophomore captain, put one in the back of the net off an assist from Kate Glover, junior, seven minutes into the second period. Being up by two the Royals, only had 17 minutes left until they could take home a win.

“Our coach was really happy with the way we played. Our turnovers were low and we had so many opportunities it made up for it [the difference in shots],” Haberman said.

Looking ahead into the season, Haberman feels it was a good win for the Royals.

“That was a big win, because they’re in our section, and come section time when we’re getting seeded, it’ll be really important that we beat them,” Haberman said.