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WISCONSIN SPORTS INFORMATION
Contact: Jessica D. Burda
Office Phone: 608.262.2255
Cell Phone: 608.712.1481 
E-mail: email@hidden 


The following release can also be found through this link at uwbadgers.com: http://www.uwbadgers.com/sport_news/whky/headlines/full_story.aspx?story_id=2003_10_09_10_56_42_whky


Oct. 9, 2003

WOMEN’S HOCKEY OPENS SEASON AT KOHL CENTER FRIDAY

MADISON, Wis. - The Wisconsin women’s hockey team will host Vermont Friday, Oct. 10, at the Kohl Center to open the 2003-04 season. The puck drops at 7:05 Friday night and the two-game series against the Catamounts continues on Saturday, Oct. 11 at 3:05 p.m. prior to the start of the 8 p.m. football game versus Ohio State at Camp Randall Stadium. 

The series marks the first-ever meeting between Wisconsin and Vermont. The Catamounts finished ninth in the Eastern College Athletic Conference standings with a 0-15-1 league record and 12-15-4 overall record under head coach Dennis Miller last season. 

Lot 91 on the east side of the Kohl Center will be open to the public for one hour prior to the women’s hockey face-off and through the end of the game. Live stats during the games and a post-game recap will be available at uwbadgers.com. 



WISCONSIN WOMEN'S HOCKEY 2003-04 OUTLOOK

As Wisconsin's youngest varsity sport, the women's hockey team is poised to enter the 2003-04 season standing tall like a worldly veteran, not the green five-year-old one might assume. 

UW completed 2003 ranked fifth in the final U.S. College Hockey Online Poll and No. 6 in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine Poll for the team's highest final rankings in school history. Additionally, the Badgers' 22-8-5 overall record (14-6-4 WCHA) ties the 2001-02 team for most wins in a season and set the school record with a .700 winning percentage. 

In preseason polls, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team earned a top-10 national ranking from U.S. College Hockey Online and a top-three spot in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Women’s Coaches Poll this week. 

Wisconsin is ranked sixth nationally in the USCHO preseason poll, while three-time defending national champion Minnesota-Duluth claimed top honors with eight first-place votes. Dartmouth, Minnesota and Harvard - all 2003 NCAA Frozen Four participants - round out the poll’s top four spots respectively, while Providence is ranked fifth. 

Like the national poll, the WCHA Coaches Poll saw Minnesota-Duluth and Minnesota claim top honors, however the Golden Gophers edged out the Bulldogs for the No. 1 ranking with five first-place votes. 

UMD nabbed two first-place votes, while Wisconsin holds a solid No. 3 position ahead of fourth-place Ohio State and fifth-place Bemidji State in the league rankings.


NEW TALENT & A SOLID CORE
The Badgers graduated a class of seniors in 2003 that helped write both the Wisconsin and WCHA record books, but under the direction of second-year head coach Mark Johnson and his staff, the Wisconsin roster brings both experience and talent back to the ice. Add eight new frosh faces and Johnson is excited for this season. 

“We have a good nucleus coming back,” Johnson said. “When you have a solid upper class core of players and you surround them with good young players, it will really create a positive competitive atmosphere. We have a good balance of players and I like our look right now.

“It’s going to be very competitive. We have 24 good players, so it will be a competitive atmosphere for ice time. It’s a good problem to have and, from a coaching standpoint, that’s what you want to create.”

Leading the Badgers' offensive ranks are seniors and assistant captains Meghan Hunter and Steph Millar, along with junior Jackie Friesen. The trio helped Wisconsin finish third among all WCHA schools in scoring offense with a 3.14 goals-per-game average. 

Hunter finished second on the team in scoring in 2003 with seven goals and 19 assists for 26 points. Her 149 career points now stands a close second to former teammate Kendra Antony's school record of 159, a mark that Hunter looks sure to surpass this season.

Hudson, Wis., native Millar notched nine goals and 12 assists for 21 points in 2003, a feat tied by Friesen for fifth on the team. With just six of her points tallied on assists, Friesen led the team with 15 goals. 

She also joined Hunter and junior Carla MacLeod, the 2003-04 team captain, on the Canadian U-22 national team last February, as four Badgers were selected to national teams in 2003 (former Badger Kerry Weiland was also named to the U.S. women's select team). 

The duo of MacLeod and Friesen teamed up again with two of Wisconsin’s new frosh - Meaghan Mikkelson and Bobbi-Jo Slusar - on Canada’s U-22 team in July for a three-game series against the U.S. U-22 team, including UW teammate Molly Engstrom in her first national team appearance. 	

Senior Karen Rickard (5-9=14), junior Amy Vermeulen (7-7=14) and sophomore Nikki Burish (7-8=15) will provide added depth in the scoring lines for Wisconsin, while the 2003 team rookie of the year Sharon Cole (4-7=11), senior Stephanie Boeckmann (4-4=8),  junior Leah Federman and frosh Grace Hutchins (1-6=7) all have proven they can produce on the Badger line. 

Wisconsin’s lone utility player, senior Kathryn Greaves (1-6=7), will again play both forward and defender this season for another UW scoring option or as a member of the Badger defense looking to maintain its dominant presence in the Conference. 

A WCHA defensive player of the week for Oct. 15, 2002, junior Nicole Uliasz returns to take her place as one of Wisconsin's top-scoring defenders. 

The former 2001 U.S. National Team member led all UW defenders with a +20 and finished second to 2003 senior Sis Paulson (total scoring team leader with 7-24=31) in scoring among defenders with seven goals and 16 assists for 23 points.

The Badgers finished second among all WCHA schools in scoring defense with a 1.91 goals-per-game average in 2003 and fellow juniors Molly Engstrom and MacLeod will join Uliasz in continuing to build Wisconsin's successful defense. 

Homegrown in Siren, Wis., Engstrom posted four goals and 10 assists for 14 points and was +3, while MacLeod finished the season with two goals and five assists for seven points and was +7 during the season.


BETWEEN THE PIPES
Perhaps the biggest questions concerning Wisconsin women's hockey will be between the pipes. Former goaltender Jackie MacMillan has been the Badgers' most dominant goaltender since the program's inaugural season in 1999. Her graduation opens up the net for a battle between two of Wisconsin's returning goalies and one newcomer.
Sophomores Jessica Bernal and Meghan Horras bring limited college experience to the position - Bernal played in two games as a frosh, while Horras played in three - and will face fierce competition from incoming recruit Christine Dufour. 

“We’ve got three goaltenders and it’s going to come down to who steps forward and shows that they can play consistently over the course of the season and even over the course of a game,” Johnson said. “I told Jessica and Meghan that the spot is wide open. It’s the first time in the program that the position has been open for people to compete for.”

Prior to their time with the Badgers, California native Bernal played on the Cal Select U-19 team at the U.S. National Championship and played club hockey for the West Valley Wolves, while Horras was named Ms. Wisconsin Hockey in 2002 and played for both Team Wisconsin and the Appleton United High School Boy's Team. A member of Team Canada's U-22 squad, Dufour played for Pomfret Academy (Conn.) and the Connecticut Polar Bears U-19 team. 

“Anytime you can create competition and you have good people vying for a position, it’s healthy. We’re going to put the best goalie in that can give us the best chance to win and if that changes on a game-to-game basis or a week-to-week basis, that’s how it will be at the start.”


FANTASTIC FROSH
Five forwards and two defenders will join Dufour as first-year Badgers. Versatility and size will mark the addition of Wisconsin's newest forwards - Sara Bauer, Heidi Kletzien, Lindsay Macy, Mikkelson and Phoebe Monteleone - while Wisconsin's defensive corps will gain deft control and vision from Slusar and Kristen Witting.

The Badger schedule offers up 32 regular-season games for its fans, including trips to Maine and California, along with an increasingly competitive WCHA calendar to further test the moxie of this maturing cardinal and white squad. 

“I’m anxious to see what this team’s identity becomes,”Johnson said. “The theme in the early part of the season will be unity, togetherness and working as a team because if this team is going to be successful, they are going to have to pull for one another due to the inexperience we have at some of the positions.

“That excites me. Any time you get eight freshmen in, it’s fun from our standpoint, because you like to teach the game and see people work at it and get better.”

###


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