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D1 Rookie of the Year


#66 -- Taylor Bright, SRU

TAYLOR IS ONE OF THE LEADING SCORERS IN OUR PLAYOFF SERIES. SHE PLAYS ON A U-19 TEAM AS WELL.

SHE WILL BE ONE OF OUR LEADERS IN THE YEARS AHEAD. 

SHE KEEPS HER COOL AND HELPS OUT ON THE ICE AND OFF.

FOR A ROOKIE SHE SHOWS A LOT OF LEADERSHIP AND POSITIVE PLAY.


#10 -- Emily Coughlin, LOYOLA

Being a first-year in college can be intimidating enough, and joining a new club team can also have its challenges. But Emily showed up for the first day of practice with every ounce of confidence she had. As a small and new team, we relied on our players to travel far and show up for late practices, consistently take long shifts during games, and also come through with big plays to keep us in the game. Emily did all of these things with a smile on her face and seemingly all while never running out of breath. To us, "Rookie of the Year" signifies a player who came in and earned themselves the attention of a leading scorer or established power house. Emily played the game of hockey with speed, agility, competition, and passion. She rose to every occasion and was everything we could have hoped for in a new player.


#8 -- Sonja Klumpp, UMD

Sonja joined the Terps this year and was a pleasant surprise for the coaches.  Sonja had a great understanding of the game and good fundamentals.  She was one of our quieter freshman off the ice when we started the season but her presence on the ice was certainly not the same. 

Sonja ended the season with 33 points leading the entire UMD team.  Sonja was not only an offensive powerhouse but she was also one of our strongest players in the D zone.  Sonja was also a key part of the Terps success on power plays netting more goals than anyone else on the man advantage. 

As the season went on Sonja stepped up into more of a leadership role and we look forward to what the next 3 years will hold for Sonja’s hockey career with the Terps.  


#17 -- Kate Sohn, UPENN

As a transfer student who “crossed over from the dark side” from Rutgers, Kate Sohn has been an invaluable addition to the Penn roster.

Throughout her rookie season with us, she has proven to be both a talented defensewoman and a steadfast teammate. Her calm, cool, and collected demeanor allowed her to make smart plays on the ice and become a regular in our defensive rotation.

By the end of this season, Kate grew to be much more than a new face - she’s become an integral part of our team. She is definitely Penn’s Rookie of the Year.


#16 -- Katelyn Stathers, TOWSON

A transfer student who started at Towson in the fall, Katelyn played forward and fit right into the rotation by adding strength and size to our offense.  Katelyn had 5 goals and 10 assists in the season to help the team. She is our Rookie of the year because of her flexibility and willingness to sacrifice herself for the team.  There were several games where we had to move her from her comfort zone on wing to Center and even defense on occasions.  Katelyn’s ultimate sacrifice was to volunteer to play goalie on Senior night against our rival University of Maryland.  A big game against our biggest rival and for the top seed in the league.  Katelyn stopped 22 of 26 shots from our strongest competitor which allowed Towson to gain the top seed even in defeat.  Katelyn made some great saves during the game and some nice goals during the season.  Her willingness to do anything for the team and her always positive yet competitive attitude is what made Katelyn our Rookie of the Year.


#0 -- Alexandra Venuto, VILLANOVA

When I first met Alex, she sat in the back corner of the meeting because one of our teammates dragged Alex to the meeting. Alex was a cheerleader and softball player in high school and she went into Villanova thinking that she was going to continue one of those sports, and now she’s a goalie for women’s ice hockey. At the beginning of the season, we had no goalie and someone mentioned Alex who played catcher in softball and knew how to skate, immediately I attached to her and would not let her say no. Alex had no idea what she was getting into.

Before Alex 100% committed, we took her to our coach’s backyard so she could try full equipment in 85 degree weather. The fact that she agreed to do this at a random man’s backyard with 3 people she didn’t know just shows her dedication to the team. After agreeing, her first time on the ice was admiring – she was a natural. As the year went on, Alex asked our coach to work on things and was constantly asking questions and asking for drills to be geared around things she needed to work on. Being the most important position on the team and stepping up like that and even asking questions of how she could improve shows her incredible character.

A prime example of Alex’s determination and commitment to the team was during one of our biggest games of the year against Towson, Alex was having some health issues but refused to leave the game because she didn’t want to let us down. After physically pulling her out of the net and forcing her to stop playing, Alex apologized to me saying that she let us down. This is prime example of why Alex deserves Rookie of the Year and New Player of the Year, because she saved our team and continually put in 110% effort to learn a new sport, and without her we genuinely could not have made club history coming in third.