W. Hockey Will Begin Season At Cornell, Colgate

Women’s hockey starts off its season with a trip to the early November cold of upstate New York.

First traveling to Hamilton, NY, Harvard faces off against Colgate (2-2, 0-0 ECAC North) tomorrow afternoon followed by a trip to nearby Cornell and a game on the banks of Cayuga Lake in Ithaca, NY.

The weather for Saturday night at Colgate calls for lows in the mid-30s and possible snow but Harvard is hoping to heat it up on the ice for its first games of the season.

The Crimson ended last year with a defeat of then-No. 1 Dartmouth in the first annual NCAA Women’s Frozen Four, to lay claim to third place in the country. But like every year, Harvard has had to deal with the loss of many key players to graduation—this year, though, the problem is bigger because of the Olympics.

The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, has drawn the attention of many Crimson skaters who are away from the team for the year. One missing piece is Jennifer Botterill ’02-’03, who won last year’s Patty Kazmaier Award—given to the best collegiate women’s ice hockey player in the country. Botterill is off testing herself against the best in the world as a member of Canadian National Team.

Colgate—the first test—is coming off a successful weekend, last week. The two wins they earned over Quinnipiac College, 4-0 and 3-2, this past weekend were its first in Division I play.

Colgate made the jump from Division III this season.

The Red Raiders have thus far been lead by a pair of freshmen—forwards Amanda Barre and Maura Kehoe. Both women have scored two goals throughout the Red Raider’s four games.

The young Colgate defense and goalies are still adjusting and suffering from some growing pains.

Two of three goalies on the roster are freshmen and have had their share of trouble, posting a 2.00 goals against average while the lone junior goalie’s GAA is 6.00.

The Colgate squad on the whole is very young. Out of twenty-six women on the team, only three are seniors while 13 are freshmen.

“I don’t think we’re going to have any holidays all year” said Head Coach Katy Stone. “Lots of times schools have put a lot of money into the program to get it going very quickly. We saw Duluth do it. We saw Minnesota do it. Why can’t Colgate and Vermont do it? You never know.”

After playing in Hamilton, the Crimson skaters will board a bus for the 80-mile ride to Ithaca for a challenge against fellow Ivy rival Cornell.

Cornell has yet to play a game but will have a match tomorrow against Brown under its belt by the time Harvard rolls into town.

Cornell finished middle of the pack last year and lost only three seniors to graduation but among them was last years leading goal scorer Erica Olsen. The entire defense and second leading goal scorer will all be back.

Regardless of the challenges Cornell and Colgate wil pose, the Harvard women just want to get on the ice.

“People can’t wait,” said senior captain Jamie Hagerman. “Everyone is just so excited to get the season underway.”

The Crimson begins its season tomorrow afternoon at Colgate with a 2 p.m. face-off followed by a game Sunday at the same time against Cornell in Ithaca.