Ruddock Out for Year With Stress Fracture

The goaltending duties of the Harvard women’s hockey team, which had been split between senior Alison Kuusisto and sophomore Jessica Ruddock, will now rest chiefly on Kuusisto. Ruddock, who discovered three weeks ago that she had sustained a stress fracture in her hip, will be out for the rest of the season.

“[The fracture] had been coming on for the past year and a half and it got to be pretty extreme,” said Harvard Coach Katey Stone. “And thank goodness [the doctors] figured it out when they did.”

Ruddock posted a 4-5 record with 2.78 goals against average in starting nine of Harvard’s 19 games thus far this season.

During her freshman season, Ruddock started 24 of 34 games for a Harvard team that advanced all the way to the inaugural NCAA Women’s Frozen Four. She posted an 18-6-0 record with a 2.19 GAA, including wins in the Beanpot championship, two wins in the ECAC tournament and a win in the Frozen Four consolation.

Ruddock expects that with proper rest, she will be able to avoid surgery. The injury will take time to heal, but Stone says Ruddock will be back next season provided she takes care of herself.

“If she doesn’t take care of it it’ll affect her for the rest of her life. It’s pretty significant,” Stone said. “Once she rehabs it and takes the appropriate time off she’ll be fine.”

Kuusisto is no stranger to stepping up in place of an injured teammate. As a freshman during the 1999 national championship season, Kuusisto started 11 games in place of Crystal Springer ’00 and won them all, including a 7-6 overtime win over Northeastern in the Beanpot semifinals, and a 6-5 overtime win over New Hampshire in the national championship game.

Now for the first time in her career, Kuusisto can look ahead to being Harvard’s top goaltender for a considerable stretch of the season.

“I enjoy being in this position,” Kuusisto said. “I live to play hockey. I feel for Jessica, but it’s a great opportunity for me.”

So far this season, Kuusisto is 6-3-1 with a 2.08 GAA, though her opposition is about to get considerably more challenging.

Harvard will need Kuusisto to step at immediately. One of the most important games of the season, Harvard’s Beanpot semifinal against No. 2 Northeastern, is coming up tomorrow night. Harvard will then travel to No. 4 Dartmouth on Friday night.

“[Kuusisto] is playing great,” Ruddock said. “We have of a whole lot of games strung together. The pressure’s on so we have a lot of work to do. I mean everyone’s confident in her so we’re ready.”