The First Step: History in the Making
March 18, 2005 | Women's Hockey
Early Friday morning, while many people were still sleeping or scraping their cars from the unexpected four inches of snow that fell in Madison the night before, the Wisconsin women's hockey team was gathering at the team's locker room ready to head to Dartmouth for the program's first-ever appearance in the NCAA tournament.
There was a quiet buzz of excitement, mixed with calm focus, travel jitters and maybe a little sleepiness. For the seniors this was possibly the last trip they would take as Badgers, but also the first step in actualizing a dream four years in the making, the first step towards the Frozen Four and a national title.
The moment was not lost on the underclassmen. Though some just beginning their college careers, it seemed everyone on the team understood the importance of the trip they were about to take and the history they were living.
In six short years of existence, the University of Wisconsin 's varsity women's hockey team has become a leader on the collegiate hockey scene. Though the youngest varsity sport on campus, Wisconsin provides an environment steeped in a great hockey tradition. A club sport since 1977, women's hockey has grown alongside the UW's men's hockey program that won five national titles and has made its name a standard in college hockey.
In its fifth season as an NCAA sport, women's hockey has grown enough, nationally, to warrant an expanded post-season tournament. In the four years prior, only four teams were selected to participate the NCAA Frozen Four and battle for a national title. In fact, only seven teams had ever made appearances in the NCAA Frozen Four 'Minnesota Duluth (3), Dartmouth (3), Harvard (3), Minnesota (3), St. Lawrence (2), Brown (1), Niagara (1). While ranked fifth last season, Wisconsin fell just short of the cut-off and was denied entrance to the tournament.
This season eight schools were selected to play in the quarterfinal round at campus sites throughout the country. A mainstay at fourth place in the polls this season with a recent jump to third after its outstanding performance at the 2005 WCHA Championship in Minneapolis, Wisconsin earned the school's first NCAA berth.
As Wisconsin's plane touched down on a small stretch of flat land among the hills and trees of New Hampshire, and the players gathered their belongings to deplane and greet what had been overcast and dreary weather in Madison that was now transformed into a beautifully sunny and crisp day in New England.
Practice at the rink was business as usual. Get acquainted with the new locker room, tape your stick, lace up your skates and head for the ice. As with most rinks, Dartmouth's Thompson Arena was not without its quirks. Of particular amusement for the team was the circa 1963 coffee vending machine that dispensed hot chocolate that tasted like a wintery day skating at the local outdoor rink.
Though surely lurking in the back of each skater's mind, to the casual observer this team was not pacing with nervous energy or wildly shouting about what is on the line in this one-and-done game vs. Dartmouth tomorrow. They were preparing for another hockey game, like they had prepared for any other hockey game this season. And maybe that's the trick. Winning a school-record 28 games this season, perhaps Wisconsin doesn't need to fix what isn't broken and just play 60 minutes of the high-quality hockey like it has done all season.
No matter the outcome tomorrow, this team has built on the first five years of the program at Wisconsin, setting it at the top of the collegiate circuit and making school history in the process.
Taking the ice at 6 p.m. tomorrow, Wisconsin (28-8-1, 20-7-1 WCHA) will face-off vs. Dartmouth (26-6-0, 16-4-0 ECAC) and one team will advance to challenge the winner of tonight's Minnesota-Providence contest in Minneapolis. The Badgers will be broadcast via internet radio coverage on USCHO.com. Score and game summary will be available on uwbadgers.com following the game.
