BUFFALO, NY – The Buffalo State women's hockey team continued to take significant strides forward this season with multiple improvements in the stat column while also seeing multiple individuals stamp their names into the record books.
 
Head Coach Rachel Grampp finished her fourth season at the helm and continued to see progress within the women's hockey program. The Bengals finished the year with their most conference wins since the 2019-20 season and saw the team set program records for goals (15) and shots in a game (89) in a win over Hilbert back in November. As a team, Buffalo State scored their most goals in a season, their highest goals per game, and most assists in season over the past two years. In addition, they held opponents to an average of 2.9 goals per game and 29.5 shots per game, the lowest totals since the 2017-18 season.
 
Individually, the Bengals saw strong performances this season in Vanessa Willick (Williamsville, NY/Buffalo Bisons), Laney Harrold (Hubbardston, MA/Portsmouth Abbey), Kaydence Kemp (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara Falls Rapids), and Jessica Auge (Laingsburg, MI/Honeybaked Detroit).
 
Willick paced the Bengals offense this year leading the team with 14 points on six goals and eight assists. Harrold also had a strong freshman campaign with nine assists including four against Hilbert to match the program record. For Kemp, she finished sixth in the SUNYAC with nine goals featuring a hat trick against Hilbert and a two-goal performance against Morrisville on her way to being named to the SUNYAC All-Rookie team. Kemp's nine goals were the most in a season by a rookie since Willick had nine in 2022-23. Prior to that, no rookie scored more goals in a season since Natasha Steinle scored 14 during the 2016-17 season.
 
In Auge's case, she put herself in Buffalo State history with the most career saves in program history (3,167) and was the first goaltender to reach 3,000 career saves. Auge also owns the program record with 990 saves in a single season and 93 career starts in net. Auge finished her senior campaign with a .903 save percentage and a 2.94 goals against average; the second best save percentage of her career (.906 in 2022-23) and the lowest goals against average of her career.
 
This past winter was another step forward for the women's hockey program. With a strong foundation starting to come together, the Bengals aim to continue their climb in a tough SUNYAC division.