Female Athletes Lead Students in Supporting Women’s Hockey Team

Sunday afternoon’s game will go down in the books as a 2-1 loss for the women’s hockey team, but it should be considered a split decision.

That’s because the Crimson scored a big hit with the Harvard community and succeeded in finally drawing a large crowd to its game.

“It was a great turnout,” co-captain Angela Ruggiero said. “Every person in the stadium saw a good hockey game. That’s going to translate into them coming back to a second or third game. That’s how the sport grows.”

The attendance seemed to have come up short by the time the first puck was dropped, but time proved that a long line of fans waiting to get tickets was preventing quicker entrance into the stadium.

By the final tally, a record 1,921 women’s hockey fans—surpassing the previous mark of 1,741 set by last year’s Harvard-Dartmouth matchup—braved the cold and early game time and swarmed into Bright Hockey Center for what proved to be a game for the ages.

It’s about time. Prior to Sunday’s game, the season-high attendance mark was 234 against New Hampshire on Dec. 9.

The show of support did not go unnoticed by either team.

“I thought [the turnout] was great,” Harvard coach Katey Stone said. “I am so appreciative of people stepping up and getting out here to these games. This is the kind of crowd that our kids deserve to play in front of.”

The game drew an even larger crowd than either of the No. 1 Minnesota/No. 4 Minnesota-Duluth tilts over the weekend, which posted attendance records of 1489 fans on Friday and 1587 on Saturday.

“You generally don’t get a lot of people for a 2:00 game,” Dartmouth coach Mark Hudak said. “I think it does show that if you’re putting two good teams on the ice that are going to play against each other, people want to watch women’s hockey.”

Those nearly 2,000 fans included a surprising number of students, one group the Crimson has repeatedly struggled to attract to games this season.

A great deal of credit belongs to the Harvard-Radcliffe Foundation for Women’s Athletics, which organized a pizza study break for all female athletes in order to attract more support for the hockey team’s big game. Their efforts drew a centralized fan base consisting of athletes from Harvard’s field hockey, soccer and softball teams and Radcliffe crew, in addition to numerous other female and male athletes scattered around the arena.

“I sent a mass e-mail out to my team saying, ‘Go to the women’s ice hockey game on Sunday; it’s going to be awesome,’” said Radcliffe freshman crew coach Cory Bosworth. “I love watching the women’s ice hockey team and I love coming to games when we’re out of season. I think watching other teams play helps our team keep competitive and supportive of the community.”

Radcliffe crew had organized a team outing when the Crimson played UNH on Dec. 9, a game that did not draw the attendance the team was hoping to see.

“I think it’s really important to support our fellow female athletes at Harvard,” freshman Kayla Southworth said. “I know the last game we went to wasn’t nearly as cool. Just to see so many people supporting the team is really nice.”

Following the precedent set by the women’s heavyweight crew team at last season’s game, the women’s soccer team donned black sports bras and while the players painted their stomachs with the message, “Die, Die Dartmouth,” a showing organized by women’s soccer co-captain Katie Hodel. The team ran into a locker room between periods to stay warm.

Standing on the side bleachers closest to the far-end goal, their place beside the Harvard band presented a formidable cheering block, uniformly cheering the Crimson, encouraging the rest of the fans and heckling the opponent—in particular, Dartmouth goalie Christine Capuano.

“We love the women’s hockey team. We think they’re fantastic,” said band drill master Clark Rosensweig. “I’m hoping after coming out today, this game will ignite people to keep coming back for the rest of the year.”

The crowd came alive in the second period after sophomore Jennifer Raimondi netted the first and lone goal for the Crimson.

“People were going crazy,” Stone said. “That’s Division I college athletics. Let’s just get it to be Division I women’s college hockey. That’s what we’re working on.”

As the game wound down, fans rose from the edge of their seats and stood, holding their breath as shots rang off posts and rushes were stopped.

“I didn’t want anything more than to score in the last 30 seconds and erupt,” Ruggiero said.

Among the game’s other notable attendees included U.S. Women’s National Team coach Ben Smith (who in Friday’s Boston Globe predicted a mere 400 would show for the game) and hockey legend Bobby Orr, who tagged along with men’s hockey junior defenseman Noah Welch. Orr joked that he was giving Welch a break from studying.

“We read the other day the story on Angela, and on Sunday afternoon wanted to see a hockey game,” Orr said. “I’m loving it. It’s been great hockey.”

The former Bruins star also had a bit to say about supporting the women’s team.

“Noah was telling me about the low attendance they’ve been receiving,” Orr remarked. “He also told me about how they’re trying to encourage the fans to come out and support the girls. They really should—it’s great entertainment. I’ll certainly come back. It’s been a great opportunity.”

The Crimson will have to wait until the start of next semester to assess whether or not the rest of the Harvard community seizes the opportunity to watch it journey on the road to the Frozen Four.

—Staff writer John R. Hein can be reached at hein@fas.harvard.edu.