The Bethel University women's hockey team swept an MIAC series with the St. Olaf College Oles by 4-0 and 4-1 scores to put the Royals alone in fifth place in the MIAC standings, where the top five make the postseason. Bethel traveled to Northfield on Friday night to take the 4-0 victory before finishing the sweep Saturday afternoon in Bethel University Arena with the 4-1 victory. 

Friday
The Royals downed the Oles by a 4-0 score Friday night in Northfield. Bethel scored twice in each of the first and second periods while Mallory Tidona stopped all 14 shots on goal she faced for her second consecutive shutout. Emily Roder and Courtney Johnston scored the first period goals for Bethel with assists coming from Annika Swanson, Makenzie Baker, Bri Stafne and Emma Ness. Senior Bailey Thompson scored the first second period goal with assists from Stafne and Cali Pearcy. Stafne then scored her first goal of the night for a three point game with assists from Sydnee Hanson and Pearcy. Bethel outshot St. Olaf 33-14 while the Royals were 0-1 on the power play and St. Olaf was 0-3.

Saturday
Bethel scored two more first period goals on Saturday in jumping out to the early lead before adding one more each in the second and third periods before the Oles scored their lone goal of the series with just under five minutes remaining in the game. Bailey Thompson scored Bethel's first two goals in the opening period with Bri Stafne assisting on the first goal and Sydnee Hanson and Emily Roder on the second. Stafne then scored the next two for Bethel with Roder and Thompson on the first goal assists and Hanson on the final score assist. Thompson and Stafne recorded three points on the day with two points each for Roder and Hanson. Mallory Tidona had another good performance in net for the Royals, stopping 21 of 22 Oles shots. Tidona has now given up just one goal in her last three starts. Bethel outshot the Oles 36-22 while scoring once in two tries on the power play while killing off all six of St. Olaf's power plays.

The sweep bumps Bethel up to 8-13 overall and 6-8 in the MIAC. The Oles remain winless on the season at 0-19-2 and 0-14. Bethel now sits alone in fifth place with 12 points as they look for their ninth playoff appearance in the last eleven years. The top five make the MIAC playoffs. Sitting just two points behind the Royals in sixth place is St. Kate's, the Royals opponent in next weekends MIAC series. The Royals will travel to St. Paul on Friday before hosting the Wildcats on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m.