Moorhead's Holm sisters set to reunite at Sacred Heart this fall (2024)

MOORHEAD, Minn. — Powerhouse hockey duo Ella and Bria Holm spent the 2023-24 season apart from each other after spending three years together playing varsity hockey for the Moorhead from 2020-2023.

Now, the two sisters are set to reunite and play together once again as their two unique and separate paths wound up routing to the exact same place at Division I Sacred Heart University.

Bria, 19, finished her" freshman season of hockey at the University of Maine before deciding to enter the transfer portal. Ella, 18, is coming off her senior season with the Spuds. The transfer portal can be unpredictable in a way, since many athletes may not know who will reach out to them once they throw their names in the ring, so when Ella committed to Sacred Heart on Feb. 19, just days after appearing in her final high school game for Moorhead, it was a pleasant surprise when Bria was recruited by the Pioneers when she entered the portal in March.

"It kind of just all happened at once," said Ella about how both sisters wound up committing to the same school. She said that Bria had previous familiarity and connections with Pioneers assistant coach Allison Roethke, who is a Buffalo, Minnesota, native and a former assistant at Post University, so that made the process and the final decision a lot easier and quicker to make.

So, although the two sisters spent the 2023-24 season away from each other, they are definitely excited to get the chance to play together again in the fall at the university based in Fairfield, Connecticut.

"We are very, very excited. It's kind of like bringing our childhood back but at a different level, obviously," added Ella. She also said that it'll be a lot easier for their parents and the rest of the family to watch their games either in person or online if they are now going to be playing on the same team again.

Minnesota Girls

Moorhead's Bria Holm commits to Maine, career spanned from two-win season to state consolation title

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Holm led the Spuds to their first state tournament appearance since 2006 and posted a team high of 25 goals and 48 total points in 2022-23. She will play Division I at Maine.

Apr 4, 2023

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By Sydney Wolf

Ella, 18, is the youngest sibling in her family with older sister Bria, 19, and older brother Kai, 22. The Holms are a big hockey family considering both Bria and Ella are Division I talent and brother Kai currently plays ACHA II hockey at Army West Point in New York.

Growing up in Moorhead, Ella was inspired to start playing hockey due to watching her older siblings and she wound up playing in the Moorhead Youth Hockey Association for multiple years before eventually moving up to the high school level.

Ella was called up to the varsity team for the Spuds as just a freshman but that season was far from a normal first year because it included the shortened 2020-2021 schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the adversity of playing during the pandemic restrictions, Moorhead posted an 11-8-1 overall record, which was a considerable improvement from the years prior where the Spuds had a long-running losing record for quite some time.

Rob Beer / The Rink Live

Holm tallied three goals and 10 assists through her first 20 games on varsity that season as a freshman. That was a solid starting point for her to springboard the following year and nearly double her offensive output. As a sophom*ore, the forward earned 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 total points, which was the third-most in overall point scoring on the roster, just behind current Bemidji State defender Olivia Dronen (38 points that season) and sister Bria (40).

The Spuds continued to improve that year as well by earning a 20-9 overall record before eventually falling in a 2-1 heartbreaker of a section final loss to Brainerd/Little Falls.

"After that first year [of varsity], you kind of get used to the pace, transition and grind of high school compared to youth," said Ella about her sophom*ore season. "I give a lot of credit to not only my sister but all my other linemates, like Olivia Kortan, they definitely have helped me to succeed."

The Spuds, and Holm, then proceeded to have their best season yet in 2022-23 as the team went 22-9 and earned a trip to the Class AA state tournament, which marked the first state appearance for the girls program since 2006. Holm was top five in overall scoring again that year by netting 16 goals and 18 assists through just 31 contests. Moorhead wound up taking home some hardware at the end of the season after defeating Rosemount, 5-1, for the Class AA consolation title in 2023.

"We finally got to make a name for ourselves with the Moorhead girls hockey program," said Ella about that monumental season. "We hadn't been very good in the previous years, so being able to be a part of that team that got to make it to state after I think 17 years was definitely really cool. It was a fun experience being able to do that with all my friends."

Holm said that the reason the team was so good that year was the sister-like bond that the squad had with one another. Team bonding was a priority with everyone on the roster that season and they all had very good connections both on and off the ice.

As for her final season in 2023-24, Holm posted a personal best of 20 goals and 25 assists for the Spuds through just 28 games played. Moorhead posted an even better record this past year as a team by going 24-3-1, and the squad was a top team in Class AA all season, prior to a heartbreaker section final loss to Roseau, 5-4, where the Rams rallied for four goals in the third and final period of play to pull off the upset.

"We fell short in the end, which none of us thought it would turn out that way, but it's something to look back on and learn on," said Holm. "It was an amazing year though otherwise, we had one of the best records we had in a long time and the team was super close, we all had the same goal, everyone was super driven and dedicated to get better each and every game."

Even though it wasn't the end to the high school career that Holm wanted with her team, she still had a phenomenal senior season and she came home with multiple team awards at the Moorhead end of season banquet, including the Hobey Baker Character Award, the Spud Girls Hockey Booster Scholarship Award, All-State Academic Award, All-Section 8AA Team honors, and the Hardest Worker Award (for the fourth consecutive year, according to the Spuds Instagram page).

All of the hard work for Holm started to pay off as she began to receive Division I recruiting attention around the holiday break of her senior year. This is when Sacred Heart originally reached out to the Moorhead native, although she didn't make her official commitment until Feb. 19, following the high school season.

"I’m excited and honored to announce my commitment to play Division 1 hockey and further my education at Sacred Heart University. I would like to thank my family, friends, teammates, coaches, and everyone else who has helped me along the way," posted Holm to her social media pages.

When asked by The Rink Live about what made Sacred Heart the right school for her, Holm said that she enjoyed the coaching staff and their dedication to the game and to their players. She also said that she felt at home when meeting the team and when visiting the campus.

The SHU campus is just northwest of the downtown area of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The Pioneers have an undergraduate enrollment of just over 6,500 students and the women's hockey team competes in the New England Women's Hockey Alliance, which includes other schools like Long Island, Stonehill and Franklin Pierce, among others.

Holm's choice to go to Sacred Heart then wound up working out for the entire family as older sister Bria would enter the transfer portal in March and announce her commitment to the Pioneers shortly after. Bria just finished up her freshman season with the University of Maine and she appeared in eight games and registered one goal with the program during her time there.

Ella said that there should be even more familiarity within the Pioneers roster though when she gets there this fall outside of knowing just her sister. She also knows incoming freshman Addie Bowlby of Lakeville North and she knows current athletes on the roster in Grayson Limke (Holy Family) and Olivia LaRoche (Minnetonka) as well.

Pioneers fans can get excited about Holm's skating ability and her speed. She enjoys driving wide and creating plays by distributing the puck to her teammates but can also shoot and score by herself too.

Holm isn't for sure set on a specific major yet for when she gets to college but is thinking about possibly studying business or marketing. When she's not playing hockey, she enjoys spending time with friends and family and hanging out at the lake.