The Alabama women’s hockey team won the 2025 College Hockey South championships on Feb. 9, qualifying for nationals in its first year in the conference.
The team was founded in December 2023 by defenseman Keara Duffany, winger Morgan Grzybowski and defenseman Teegan Mathey, three Alabama students.
Although the team was formed last year, it did not officially compete within the CHS league until this season, making the Frozen Tide’s first season its championship season.
“I started crying immediately after that final buzzer went off,” Duffany said. “It just felt so special in that moment to be able to come out so strong this first year and just prove our place in the league.”
The team beat the University of Tampa 3-2 to win the championship. Freshman center Claire Carson was named the 2024-25 MVP by the CHS.
Carson made a significant impact in her first season in the conference, ranking in the top three in goals, assists and points. The center scored a point in all of the Frozen Tide’s 13 games and had 11 games where she scored more than one, including four hat tricks.
“Having a team that was building me up and supporting me felt extra special, because everyone was rooting for me,” Carson said. “It felt like I was making the program proud, since everyone was cheering me on.”
Carson is from Canada and has been playing hockey since she was 4 years old. Originally, Carson planned to stay in Canada for school to play hockey, but she later found out through Facebook that Alabama had a team.
“My first week here, I showed up to tryouts, and everyone was just so great on the team, and I decided this was definitely something I wanted to be part of and help grow,” Carson said.
Mathey said winning the championship was a “full-circle moment” to when the team played its first scrimmages in January 2024, beating Auburn in two games by scores of 20-0 and 18-1.
“Our jerseys had not come in yet, and so we played with the men’s practice jerseys with numbers taped on the back,” Mathey said. “Auburn came in, and when they saw our jerseys, they thought they were going to run the game. We ended up beating them 20 to nothing, which is unheard of in hockey.”
The team practices once a week. These practices include an off-ice workout, some drills on the ice and a scrimmage period.
“We’re gonna keep going and try and get as far as possible, because I’ve already seen what this team can do,” said Gryzbowski, “We’re just gonna work on our practices, keep bonding as a team, and work as hard as we can to win nationals.”
Nationals will be in Jacksonville, Florida, from March 5-9. Because the team is student-run, it does not receive funding and instead relies on fundraising to make these trips possible. The team is trying to raise $15,000 for nationals.
“Girls’ sports are growing so much right now,” Gryzbowski said. “I really hope that hockey can grow more and there will be more opportunities for little girls to be able to play, because right now is difficult, but that’s one of the goals of our team, is to try and grow hockey in the South.”
