Seniors Stay Perfect With Win

Prior to last night, Alison Kuusisto ’02 was the only Harvard women’s hockey player ever to win four Beanpot trophies.

Now six players have accomplished the feat.

The five Crimson seniors—Jennifer Botterill, Tracy Catlin, Kalen Ingram, Jamie Hagerman and Pamela Van Reesema—were given the honor of closing out the Crimson’s 7-0 victory over Boston College for the program’s fifth straight Beanpot title.

“They deserve it,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone.

The Beanpot has always been a special tournament.

“I think it’s great and there’s so much energy and enthusiasm around this tournament in Boston,” Botterill said. “Our team really takes pride and so we always want to bring our best performance every time we play.”

Among the five titles, last year’s was the one the Crimson was least favored to win. Semifinal opponent Northeastern was No. 2 in the country at the time. But Lauren McAuliffe provided the game-winner over the Huskies in overtime.

“It was pretty sweet last year because no one expected us to win,” Stone said.

Harvard is now just three more Beanpot wins away from matching Northeastern’s record of eight consecutive titles.

It will now be up to the underclassmen to keep that streak alive. Freshman Julie Chu, who tallied a goal and four assists in her Beanpot final debut, will be a big part of that endeavor, but she is living in the moment for now.

“It was a great honor to be part of it and see our seniors start and finish the finals,” Chu said.

The five seniors also have four Beanpot MVP trophies between themselves. Botterill won the accolade in 2000, 2001 and 2003, and Catlin claimed the award in 2002 when Botterill took the year off for the Olympics.

A Painful Tribute

In any game as lopsided as Harvard’s victory over Boston College, a top priority is to ensure that no one gets hurt.

As it turned out, the closest the Crimson came to injury was during the victory celebration.

As the team skated around the ice with the Beanpot trophy and passed by the Harvard band, sophomore Kat Sweet slammed her body against the glass as a show of appreciation—but the contact was harder than she expected.

Sweet was visibly shaken after the collision, but she skated off any ill effects.

Quarantine Time

Not that it would have made much of a difference, but Boston College was missing its leading scorer Alaina Clark last night.

The reason? The Norwalk virus.

The virus was only expected to keep Clark out for 48 hours, but that stretch happened to include the Beanpot final.

Better than the Worst

Boston College coach Tom Babson had some words of high praise for the No. 1 Crimson.

“I’ve been watching women’s college hockey for 10 years, and this is the best team I’ve seen,” he said.

Babson had suffered a 17-2 defeat to the Crimson two weeks prior to tonight. In that game Harvard set a new school record for goals scored and tied the school record for margin of victory. BC posted a 10-goal defensive improvement last night.

“We did a D zone coverage that worked a lot better than the last D zone coverage,” Babson said. “So we’re pleased with the effort the kids made.”

Among the other Beanpot schools, the Eagles appear the most likely to challenge the Crimson in the near future. BC is in the midst of its best season ever while Northeastern is in the middle of its worst.

“This year breaks all of our records, and we’re really happy with what the kids are doing,” Babson said.

—Staff writer David R. De Remer can be reached at remer@fas.harvard.edu.