'I can trust her all the time': Why SCMB girls hockey leans on its ...

BURRILLVILLE — Ava Porter doesn’t do much losing.
The Moses Brown field hockey, ice hockey and lacrosse star already has one championship in hand this school year. The SCMB co-op team (Smithfield, Cumberland, Moses Brown) enters this year’s tournament searching for its fourth straight ice hockey title. The lacrosse team will pursue its latest dynasty behind Porter starting in the spring.
Porter’s resumé, if she wins in the winter and spring, will include nine titles over her career. The wins also accompany her six Providence Journal All-State selections as either a first- or second-team pick.
The Providence College field hockey commit is otherworldly in net and SCMB will go wherever its senior takes them over the few weeks. If Monday’s performance against Northern RI Yeti, a 21-save shutout in a 3-0 win, is any indication, SCMB is in safe hands.
“I'm just grateful to have the team behind me and these teammates,” Porter, who is from Somerset, said. “A lot of people support me and I think that some people don't have the opportunity to have teams like that. I'm just grateful for my teammates.”
Porter protected a one-goal lead during a 5-on-3 penalty kill midway through the second period vs. the Yeti. She managed three saves during the sequence, including a pad stop on a shot from the high slot. SCMB was sent to the box again just after it killed the 5-on-3 and Porter still kept a clean sheet.
“It is just a dream come true playing with her,” Moses Brown junior Ashley Brousseau said. “It sounds cliché, but playing all three sports with her I actually feel lucky. She's obviously an amazing player and saves anything that comes to her, and I can trust her all the time, but also just a really great teammate and a great friend.”
SCMB’s Maeve Stilley scored from just right of the net with one second left in the second period to give the co-op a 2-0 lead. That was plenty for Porter, who made 16 stops through two periods. The sport also provides a bit of an escape for Porter. After the stress of field hockey season is lifted, Porter can breathe on the ice.
“I've learned to have a lot of fun with it,” Porter said of ice hockey. “It feels like there's not a lot of pressure on me. There's pressure on me to stop a puck, but I feel like I can be myself when I play and just have fun with it. In field hockey, I feel like there's a bit more pressure and I want to be as best as I can. Obviously, I want to be as best as I can in both sports, but I just feel more pressure.”
Even s, she still takes ice hockey seriously in her own way. SCMB doesn’t win back-to-back overtime state championships against La Salle without her. Porter, who said those two ice hockey championships are her favorite wins, made 27 stops in the first match. She then stopped 16 in the encore, which earned her the game’s Most Valuable Player award.
“Everybody knows going into a game, that she is going to have a good game,” Brousseau said. “And she especially shows up when it matters the most. She's just cool, calm and collected. And everyone can go off of that, because if you're looking at your net, your anchor, she's always back there.”
“It’s hard to get any emotion out of her, she’s very even-keeled,” SCMB coach Angela Harriman said. “She never shows emotion one way or the other. But also in the locker room, she's always letting the girls know what she needs them to do to help her.”
She started playing lacrosse as a freshman with the Providence school. Last year, which saw Moses Brown go undefeated, Porter earned a second-team All-State selection. It’s not her best sport, but after just three seasons, she was one of the two best goalies in the state.
“I've found it more difficult because of just how often they score in lacrosse,” Porter said. “It's a totally different sport, and I do love it, but I think I have to be a lot more focused in lacrosse. I'm still learning a lot of stuff.”
She’ll start her next journey with Providence College in the fall. Porter said recruitment was stressful, but she chose the program because of the familiarity. She liked the campus and her parents can see the games and her older sister, Asia Porter, is the Friars starting goalie.
“You're trying so hard to get noticed and going to so many different camps and clinics,” Porter said of the process. “I definitely had my eyes set on PC.
“I’m very excited, I can’t wait.”
For now, SCMB will likely enter as the No. 2 seed in the hockey tournament.
“I’ve played with her since I was really young, and she's great,” Brousseau said. “She'll teach you stuff and she'll be honest with you. You're not going to have any doubts when you're with her, she will always reassure you.”
“She's always very positive,” Harriman said. “That's going to be a big loss, her positivity, for everybody.”
jrousseau@providencejournal.com
On X: @ByJacobRousseau