W. Hockey Names 2000-1 Captains

For the third time in team history, the Harvard women's hockey team will have three captains in the 2000-1 season. The Crimson's newest leaders will be junior Angie Francisco and sophomores Angela Ruggiero and Jen Botterill, who will succeed seniors Sally Maloney and Kim McManama, the co-captains this past season.

At the team banquet last Tuesday, Francisco won the Dooley Award, given to the player with the most sportsmanship, enthusiasm and dedication to the game. Francisco, who can play both center and wing and is one of the most feared players around the net in the ECAC, was an All-Ivy honorable mention this year with 14 goals and 36 assists.

Ruggiero, the nation's highest-scoring defenseman, was named the team's most valuable player. Ruggiero, who has a vicious slapshot from the blue line and can handle the puck anywhere on the ice, finished with 21 goals and 33 assists and was named an AWCHA All-American for the second straight season.

Botterill did not win any awards at the banquet, but she was named the ECAC Player of the Year. Botterill replaced A.J. Mleczko '99, a former ECAC Player of the Year, as the top-line center and proved equally adept as both a scorer and a distributor, recording 31 assists and 31 goals.

Finally, the Bertagna Award for the most improved player went to freshman Kalen Ingram. Ingram joined Botterill and junior Tammy Shewchuk on the top line midway through her rookie season and scored 11 goals and 19 assists.

Shewchuk, Botterill, Ruggiero, Francisco and Ingram head the list of scorers who will return next season. In 1999-2000, the Crimson ended its season in frustration when it lost to Dartmouth in the conference semifinals and missed out on a bid to the AWCHA Final Four. Next season, when women's hockey becomes an NCAA sport, those players will have a chance to lead Harvard back to the national title game, which it won in 1998-99.