Athlete of the Week: Tammy Shewchuk `01

When senior forward Tammy Shewchuk netted her 129th career score on Sunday, she became the greatest goal scorer in the 23-year history of Harvard women's ice hockey.

Shewchuk made the record-breaking goal look easy. She effortlessly stick-handled past a defender, walked in on Yale goaltender Nicolette Franck and slipped a backhand past her. Shewchuk had repeated similar motions while scoring her first 128 collegiate goals--this last one couldn't have come more easily.

"She is such an amazing goal scorer," said U.S. National Team member A.J. Mleczko '99, whose mark Shewchuk surpassed. "I knew that the record was bound to come for her eventually."

Shewchuk did more than set records this weekend. She scored the key goals that put her team over the top in the Crimson's 4-0 win over Princeton, and added the assists that iced Harvard's victory over Yale early in the first period.

In the opening minutes against the Elis, she was in no rush to set the record. She set up junior center Jennifer Botterill for the game's third score, and tallied three assists before netting her first goal, Harvard's seventh of the afternoon.

"[Shewchuk] has really become a complete player," Harvard Coach Katey Stone said. "She plays both ends of the ice and she's become very unselfish, so [the record] means much more than it would have before."

Her clutch goals against Princeton on Saturday afternoon wowed the crowd. Early in the first period, just when it looked like Harvard was about to waste its first power play of the afternoon, Botterill fired a pass cross-ice to Shewchuk, who one-timed the zooming puck past Princeton goalie Megan Van Beusekom for the 1-0 lead.

The Crimson did not score again until the middle of the third period, when Botterill set Shewchuk free on a coast-to-coast breakaway. Shewchuk accelerated across mid-ice at maximum speed with an unobstructed path to the net and the game on the line. Van Beusekom was helpless to stop her.

Can any goaltender in the world stop Shewchuk on a clean breakaway like that?

"[Junior Allison] Kuusisto and [freshman Jessica] Ruddock definitely stop me all the time in practice," Shewchuk insists.

"I saw [U.S. National Team goaltender] Ali Brewer do it at the Four Nations Cup," claims Princeton Assistant Coach Crystal Springer '00.

Either way, more goals will be soon to come for Shewchuk. Harvard will need them all, as it presently trails Dartmouth and St. Lawrence in the loss column in the ECAC Standings.

More records will be soon to come as well. Shewchuk is nine points and 10 assists short of Mleczko's records in those respective categories, although teammate Angie Francisco is on pace to beat Mleczko's assist record first.

Shewchuk has even been an asset to Harvard hockey off the ice. She is the color commentator for WHRB's broadcasts of the men's hockey games whenever her schedule permits.

But in the meantime, Shewchuk will focus on the task at hand--beating Brown tomorrow. If it takes Olympic-level competition to beat Shewchuk come game-time, it may well be another two years in Salt Lake City before any goalie will be able to single-handedly stop her when she's at her best.