W. Hockey Marks Senior Day With Win

One might not expect the Harvard women’s hockey team to cry after crushing Yale 11-3 on Saturday. But that afternoon, tears were flowing like power-play goals as the Crimson honored five stars on Senior Day at the Bright Center.

As the five seniors—Jennifer Botterill, Tracy Catlin, Jamie Hagerman, Kalen Ingram, and Pamela Van Reesema—skated together during the final seconds of last night’s game, a four-year journey swelled their hearts and minds.

“It’s so surreal. It’s gone by so quickly,” Hagerman said. “I wish I could have it back and do it all over again, but I know I can’t.”

Hagerman, an anchor of the Crimson defense, also reflected fondly on her teammates.

“Every day I come down here it’s like magic playing with these people. Every day it gets better,” Hagerman said. “And we’ve got a whole month left of our season.”

While such ceremonies usually signal the beginning of the end for the seniors, Stone offered a different perspective.

“We just talked about it being the beginning of the beginning,” Stone said. “It was kind of why we wanted to do it today. We have a big game Tuesday night and we have a lot of hockey of left.”

Despite its emotions, the Crimson (22-1-1, 12-0-1 ECAC) took it right to the Bulldogs (8-17-2, 4-10-0) from the get-go.

Botterill’s second goal reflected the team’s intensity. The goal came on the power play with help from junior captain Angela Ruggiero and freshman Julie Chu at 15:18 in the first period.

All members of the power-play unit—including junior Lauren McAuliffe and Van Reesema—made the goal possible by shredding the Yale penalty kill defense with crisp passes through the zone.

With 16 seconds remaining in the first period, Ruggiero raced in by her lonesome and hung Yale goalie Nicolette Franck high and dry to bring the Crimson lead to 5-0 and put the game out of reach for Yale.

The Bulldogs showed signs of life by posting two scrappy goals in the second and one in the third. It was only the third time all season Harvard had surrendered three goals in a game.

But the nation’s best defense had no other lapses and secured the victory.

“We let down our guard a little bit and forgot how important defensive zone is because our offensive zone was going so smoothly for us,” said captain Jamie Hagerman.

For the first time this season, all three Crimson goaltenders saw time in a single game.

Junior Jessica Ruddock made one save in the first, freshman Ali Boe stopped eight of 10 shots in the second period, and junior Emily Smith made two saves on three shots in the final frame of action.

Franck and Sarah Love split time in the net for Yale, making 25 and 18 saves, respectively.