Vaillancourt continues impressive rookie campaign with a goal and an assist

After the No. 6 Harvard women hockey team’s last few games, there is no doubt that freshman Sarah Vaillancourt is the best collegiate rookie in the country.

The real question might be, how much of the load for the Crimson can she carry?

After scoring three goals and adding two assists in victories over Cornell and Colgate this weekend, Vaillancourt now boasts an average of 2.14 points per game, over half a point better than the second best rookie in the country—Niagara’s Ashley Riggs.

For the season overall, Vaillancourt has 12 goals and 18 assists in 14 games—including three big game-winners for Harvard.

In Tuesday’s game, Vaillancourt scored Harvard’s third goal to help secure the win.

“When you’re a freshman coming in, you have all these different pressures,” tri-captain Nicole Corriero said. “You don’t know what to expect. [Vaillancourt] has come into her own. She’s found her niche, found her rhythm.”

The transition comes at an opportune time. The graduation of Kazmaier Trophy-winning defenseman Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04 in June opened up a defensive hole that may never be filled. The Crimson needs Vaillancourt to continue to compensate with prolific scoring in order to secure a spot in the NCAA tournament

So far, Vaillancourt has filled that role. Harvard hopes that as she develops and the postseason approaches, she will be able to put in a few more of those crucial game winners for Harvard.

ON THE BRINK

Over the course of last weekend, Harvard moved from the playoff bubble to a comfortable, if not ideal, place based on Pairwise Rankings. Heading into the weekend, Harvard edged a razor-thin eighth place in the eight-team playoff.

After the Crimson downed Cornell and Colgate, however, Harvard jumped to sixth place—a significantly more secure spot.

Additionally, with the victory over Brown—before the game, the Bears ranked No. 11 in the nation—the Crimson jockeyed into a favorable position for the tough post-finals stretch.

“We’ve lost some big games, but there are still a lot of games to be played and a lot can happen,” junior tri-captain Julie Chu said. “By the end of the season when it’s getting gritty, that’s when it matters; but right now we are just focusing on one game at a time.”

Harvard still has to face league foe Dartmouth—which stands at No. 2 nationally and No. 1 in the Pairwise Rankings—twice in conference play. The Crimson then enters a tough ECAC postseason tournament before the final eight teams for the NCAA tournament are chosen.

The Pairwise Rankings, compiled by USCHO.com in an attempt to predict the teams that will be selected by the NCAA committee, have been right in prognosticating the four-team field for every tournament since the inaugural system was introduced in 2001.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

After the holiday break, Harvard coach Katey Stone introduced “Harvard boot camp,” in her own words, to get the team back on the right track after losing five of six.

Practices focused on improving team conditioning and speed.

“The main thing is that we worked so much harder in practice than we did before break,” captain Kat Sweet said. “Actual practices themselves were structured so much harder, so we are just in better skating shape.”

Stone also aimed to improve the team’s early-game energy level.

At the beginning of the season, the Crimson showed an inability to jump to consistent early leads. In its last three games, on the other hand, it has scored five first-period goals, including one in the first 14 seconds of Saturday’s matchup against Colgate.

“One thing we realized [was that] no matter how hard we worked, we weren’t going to die,” Corriero said. “The coaches really pushed us. Because of our really intense game schedule in November and December, it was tough for them to do that before. Now was a great opportunity for them to push us and see how far we could go.”

“We’ve worked really hard to get to the point where we can take these opponents,” junior Carrie Schroyer added.

—Staff writer Gabriel M. Velez can be reached at gmvelez@fas.harvard.edu.