The women's hockey team announced its new Class of 2010 members earlier this month, naming half a dozen talented freshmen who will join the squad that finished fourth in the Ivy League last year.
Most notable among the incoming players is Sarah Parsons '10. She will enroll in classes for the first time in the fall, having taken last year off to compete in the Olympics. The forward led the U.S. National Team in scoring at the Torino games, tallying four goals and three assists for the bronze medal-winning squad. Her Olympic successes came on the heels of an exceptionally successful high school career, in which she rewrote the record books at Noble and Greenough School in Massachusetts.
"She should fit well into the type of up-tempo offense we will want to play next year," head coach Mark Hudak said.
Parsons won't be the only Olympian playing up front for the Big Green. Gillian Apps '06, Cherie Piper '06 and Katie Weatherston '06, who won gold with Team Canada at the Torino Olympics, will all return to the Dartmouth squad next season. The influx of players with international experience will push at least one Olympian onto the second line of forwards.
Three of the incoming freshmen will play up front. In addition to Parsons, Jenna Cunningham '10 and Sarah Toupal '10 will be on the forward lines in Hanover next season.
Cunningham, of Medicine Hat, Alberta, tallied 24 goals and 36 points in a thirty-game season last year and saw time on Team Alberta in the Canadian U-18 Championships for the last two years.
Toupal, of White Bear Lake, Minn., is a similarly prolific scorer, netting 23 goals in 28 games, and scoring 38 points. She has national team experience similar to Cunningham's, having played in the USA Select 17s and 18s Festival in Lake Placid, N.Y.
These additions should help compensate for the graduation of Tiffany Hagge '06, the captain of last year's team, a leader on and off the ice and a talented goal scorer.
"With the return of Apps, Piper and Weatherston, we should be fine up front from the losses of this year," Hudak said.
The team also lost goaltender Kate Lane '06 to graduation.
"Lane, our goalie with a ton of experience, will be tough to replace," Hudak said. "I think Carli Clemis '09 will step in well in the net in replacing Kate."
Two of the six recruits are goaltenders hoping to help to replace Lane, and both look quite capable. Sarah Kennedy '10 sported a .910 save percentage and a 2.87 goals against average last season, while Mariel Lacina '10 of London, Ontario was named the most valuable player of 2005 at the London city finals.
"We will certainly be looking to Carli to step in and play like she did on a number of occasions next year," Hudak said, adding, however, "We also have two freshmen goalies coming in who will push hard for some playing time."
The team will certainly suffer in the wake of the graduation of last year's seniors, but their replacements, especially the four Olympians coming to the forward lines, could have the team looking like those that reached four consecutive Frozen Fours before last year.
"We are going to have a ton of potential at every position," Hudak said. "I think we'll see some very exciting hockey in Thompson once the puck drops."
