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D1 New Player of the Year

#38 -- Hannah Azzarello, SRU

HANNAH IS A FIRST TIME SKATER AND WHEN SHE JOINED THE TEAM AND ALL THE GIRLS ON THE TEAM WERE ON HER SIDE TO KEEP WITH IT.

SHE ACTUALLY HUNG IN THERE AND STAYED ON THE TEAM. I MIGHT ADD, SHE FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHAT OFFSIDE IS. SHE SHOULD GET AN AWARD FOR THE MOST CALLS FOR OFFSIDE...LOL

AS A COACH WANTING A WINNING TEAM. I ALWAYS PLAYED HER NO MATTER THE SITUATION. SHE HAD HER JOB ON THE ICE THAT I GAVE HER AN ASSIGNMENT AND SHE STUCK WITH IT. SHE IS DESERVING OF THIS AWARD AND IT WOULD MAKE ME PROUD THAT SHE GETS THIS. SHE NEVER QUIT AND HUNG IN THERE EVEN WITH A SHORT BENCH AND NOW SHE IS HOOKED WITH THIS TEAM. I'M SURE SHE WILL RETURN NEXT SEASON AND CONTINUE TO GROW.


#6 -- Aidan Balduman-Gerrity, TOWSON

A transfer student who originally played Rugby at Towson, Aidan decided she wanted to learn how to play Ice Hockey this past fall.  This was Aidan’s first attempt to play Ice Hockey at the college level.  She is a true athlete who worked hard to learn the game and embrace the hockey culture.  Aidan came to every practice and team event willing to learn and get better. Her learning attitude and positivity made her a great fit for our team.  She developed throughout the season and scored her first goal on November 13th against Loyola University. Aidan is a great example of how Towson’s team is able to integrate players of any skill level into the rotation and have them develop into experienced players. We are excited to see how Aidan’s hockey skills grows over the next few seasons! 


#1 -- Emily Cyr, LOYOLA

With the departure of last year's new goalie for a semester abroad, our team was in a bit of a tough spot heading into January. We had plenty of games left on the calendar, and Emily stepped up for our team to ensure we had a fighting chance - and fight we did! Emily suited up for the first time ever as a hockey player, in goalie pads no less, the week before our first game of the second semester. Her courage and willingness to stand behind a team she previously had no ties to was tremendous, and we can't thank her enough!

Not only is goalie the most difficult position on the ice, it is no simple task for even well practiced goalies to stop pucks. With just one practice under her belt, Emily faced game day with stone cold confidence. She exceeded our expectations and even showed up the next week for practice. Emily wasn't just there to stand in the way, either; she took the time to work with our goalie coach and learn all of the techniques she could in her short time in net. As a new goalie, Emily's progress was phenomenal, and showed great athleticism. 


#25 -- Kayla Penniman, UPENN

If you watched Kayla Penniman play hockey recently, you never would have guessed that this was her first year on the ice. Her technical skills, from skating to stick-handling, have vastly improved from the beginning of this season.

On top of that, she’s got the hockey smarts to match. Able to follow and execute a variety of break-out and zone-entry plays, Kayla can easily match players who have been playing for years.

With her freshman year and first season under her belt, we look forward to seeing even further improvements in Kayla’s play. She is without a doubt Penn’s New Player 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.