Winter 2003

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UMass women take to the ice

Ben Barnhart

Yeah, they’re Obsessed: Anne-Marie Plain ’05, goalie Becky Trudel ’05, and captain Kelly Craven ’03, after a 4-3 home victory over the Stamford Spinnakers. (photo by Ben Barnhart) DON'T BE FOOLED by the UMass women’s ice hockey club team. They may look like a rag-tag crew with their mismatched jerseys, some of which are discards from the men’s varsity squad, but they are a tight group of serious hockey players. While most UMass sports fans have followed the men’s team’s rise in Hockey East this year, these women have been quietly making a run at the national championship of the American Collegiate Hockey Association. In their first year in the ACHA, they have elbowed their way to a second-place ranking in the east and an invitation to nationals in Muskegon, Michigan, in early March. “We’re a dark horse team,” says goalie and assistant captain Becky Trudel ’05 from Methuen. “When we beat teams like Penn State, they have no idea it’s coming.” Beating Penn State, which they’ve done once this year along with a loss and a tie, is a measuring stick for UMass, since the Nittany Lions are the perennial eastern power. Penn State is a well-supported club with seasoned coaches and trainers – along with spiffy uniforms, matching gloves, helmets and equipment bags. That makes winning all the sweeter. UMass makes do with a $5,000 grant from the Registered Student Organization fund and $250 annual dues per player. If that sounds like a lot for a club team, just consider that Mullins Center ice time sets them back $120 an hour. Add the cost of travel, hiring referees and coaches (they pay two UMass students, Bill Finn ’04 and Jimmy Gogan ’04, a few hundred dollars each semester to help coach the team) and their bank account is quickly depleted. And don’t get these feisty women started on the subject of the Mullins Center management. “They’re horrible,” Trudel says (adding some choice, not repeatable words). An echo of boos fills the locker room – a cold, drafty racquetball court closed off by a thin curtain – where the team is gathered before practice. She explains that because they’re a club team without a contractual agreement with the Mullins Center, they are the lowest priority for ice time. They’ve had several practices cancelled without notice because the men’s team needed the rink; even the Amherst youth leagues get higher priority than these UMass students. Perhaps facing these obstacles has united this team and sharpened their edges, thinks Captain Kelly Craven ’03. “This team has a different personality,” says Craven, who has suited up for the women’s hockey club each of her four years at UMass. “This year we have something to play for” – the nationals. Craven, a tall, lanky forward with bright blue eyes, strawberry-blonde hair and an inch-long scar across her forehead, calls herself an all-around jock and has been playing ice hockey since she was a seventh-grader in Reading. “It’s absolutely the most fun I’ve ever had on a team,” she says. “Of course, we’re winning a lot and that always helps.” Though the players’ abilities vary greatly – some have played for years, even with their high school boys’ teams, while others have come from figure skating backgrounds and still others have minimal skating experience – the common bond that brings these women to 6 a.m. practices and long weekend road trips is undoubtedly a passion for ice hockey. The team often gathers on a frozen Puffer’s Pond in Amherst for a pick-up game before heading off to the Mullins Center for practice. “Yeah, we’re obsessed,” Trudel says with a wide grin. Determined, anyway. When the team had trouble scheduling enough games in the east division to qualify for ACHA rankings, they headed west. With help from coach Bill Finn’s family’s travel agency in Plymouth, they booked a 10-day trip to Los Angeles and Tucson during winter break and played eight games – sometimes two in one day – against teams in the west division to bolster their schedule. They went 5-3 on the trip, which helped solidify their spot in the national tournament. Each player paid $200 for airfare plus more for food, but despite the cost, it was a team-building experience, says Craven. Of course, these are college students, so the trip wasn’t all hockey. They managed to get tickets to a taping of Bob Barker’s “The Price is Right” in Hollywood and, wearing T-shirts inscribed in the New England vernacular, UMass women’s hockey loves Bob Bahkah, screamed and screamed, as is the custom on television game shows. Their determination – and screaming – paid off once again. Sophomore Remy Bacaicoa of Amherst, who had just joined the team before the trip, came away with a new car. –

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Involved in just about everything

McCAW: Larger image

SCORE BOARD

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UMass women take to the ice

UMASS WOMEN: More images

Educating the Chancellor

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