 The Bemidji State women's hockey team is enjoying their long Christmas break, with a brighter outlook on the season than their previously once was. After going winless in their first 10 games, the Beavers ended the first half going five and four, picking up some wins and some much needed confidence. The Beavers will go four weeks without playing a game, giving the team a great chance to regroup before the second half of the year. It's just a chance to get home, spend time with family, with friends. Again, it's an opportunity to kind of recharge the battery for them and for the coaching staff, knowing that the second half is going to be a grind. Before the break, the Beavers picked up a three to one win against Mercyhurst. They're first away from the Sanford Center. A hurdle the team certainly needed to get over. Winning on the road is always a challenge, so going into a place like Mercyhurst against a very good team to come away with a win like that on Saturday was big for a lot of reasons. I think it just gives us confidence going into the second half, just reassuring us that we can do it and we can put pucks in the net and we can win big games. The team's underclassmen have grown throughout the season and will need to be big contributors as the team pushes on in the second half. When you come in as a freshman, like confidence is a big thing and they've all approached it really well, I think. Freshmen in sophomore class, a lot of them are playing big minutes and it's good to see, so I think now they're starting to understand how you have to play at this level and stuff and I think they're accepting their roles pretty well. It wasn't easy digging themselves out of their 0-9-1 start, but the team believes that the challenges they face will help them as they finish the season. I think we're all on the same page too. We all were frustrated, we all, but then we realized that it's not going to be one of us winning game stress. We're going to all have to play hard and play as a team and not be selfish and move the puck and I think that's all ends of our team. Definitely stepped up and sort of playing a lot better. Every weekend we know it's a battle, but having success certainly helps and going through that adversity at the beginning of the year certainly is going to help us going forward. The Beavers kick off the 2019 portion of their season with a non-conference series against Union at the Sanford Center. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.