As Gretchen Ulion '94 walks to her daily practice at Thompson Arena, she may not stand out from the ordinary Dartmouth student. After her skates have been tied and equipment arranged, though, one cannot but notice the graceful hockey player as she confidently takes the ice.
"There are those times when Gretchen really gets rolling and there is that point when you just know she is going to score," former teammate and present assistant coach Judy Parish '91 said.
And scoring is what Ulion does best. Last year she was named Ivy League Player of the Year and broke Dartmouth's all-time scoring record with 140 goals.
"She just has that knack," Coach George Crowe said. "She is a natural scorer and knows how to put it together. ... She is incredibly smart as a hockey player and sees the ice very well."
This "knack" has developed through years of practice beginnning at the age of five. Ulion began playing with her two older brothers and knew from the beginning that hockey was the sport for her.
"I think the league was a little taken aback with a little five-year-old girl saying she wanted to play hockey with the boys," Ulion said. "Once over the intial shock, everyone was extremely accomodating and supportive."
Support is something Ulion said she never lacked. Despite the great expense of hockey and the time spent traveling from rink to rink for competitions, Ulion said her parents have always been behind her.
"That's been a big factor," she said. "I knew that they were there supporting me on the ice. I can't remember a time when they asked me to stop. I really appreciate what they have given up so that I could play."
After years of competing on all-male teams, Ulion finally got her chance to compete with and against females when she chose to attend a prep school in Connecticut with a girls' hockey team .
"The whole social ground was different," she said. "There was a definite difference in the locker room. It was a neat experience, but also having the experince of both dynamics [boys' and girls' teams] was good, too."
Past experience and hard work have helped give Ulion confidence, clearly placing her above the average player, Parish said.
"She doesn't doubt herself," Parish said. "She assumes she is the best and isn't intimidated, which makes her intimidating to others. Others are nervous when she's coming down the ice and freeze up a little. She is the one player you don't want to be playing against."
This confidence has helped not only Ulion, but the whole Dartmouth team.
"She is on a team where there are other quality players, which has helped her to improve, and she has definitely helped them improve," Parish said. "You see Gretchen's moves in other players. They see what she has done."
After playing four years with Ulion, Kim Cohen '94 said each has a sense of where the other is and they have developed a connection on the ice.
"Gretchen has a great understanding of the game," Cohen said. "She sees the opening and goes to it, so you can pick your head up and always find her in there."
During the four years, the two have played remarkably well together on the talented Dartmouth team, winning Ivy League championships their freshmen and junior years.
The Big Green recently experienced disappointment when hopes of another Ivy title were stifled by losing to Brown in a 5-3 battle last Saturday.
"I was happy with how we played on Saturday," Ulion said. "Even though we lost, it was the first time we really had played well together as a team. I don't think there is a question in our mind who the better team was."
Finishing up the season, the team still has goals to do well in the Eastern College Athletic Conference.
"Even though an Ivy Championship is out of reach, we still have the ECAC playoffs to look to," Ulion said. "There is no reason we can't get in them and even win them."
As for after graduation, Ulion still plans to train for hockey. With the increasing populartity of women's ice hockey, she does forsee some opportunities.
"Women's hockey is definitely growing," Ulion said. "Women of my age are just beginning to see the changes. It is no longer just a sport of little girls trying to play a man's sport. It's taken a long time and has been an ongoing progression."
This progression recently took a tremendous turn when women's hockey was accepted as an Olympic sport for 1998. Ulion hopes to try out for the team and has already begun competiting for the U.S. National Team.
Last fall Ulion traveled to Minnesota to participate in a one-week tryout for the team which will compete in the Olympic Festival for the first time this year.
She will find out in late February whether she has made the team. Until then, it is a matter of "sitting around and waiting."
Of course, there won't be much time for Ulion to sit around, as she will continue to practice daily and prepare for the ECAC playoffs in March.
