Homecoming Weekend for Monteleone
November 29, 2006 | Women's Hockey
For a student-athlete competing in their final year of eligibility, every game takes on more meaning. However, when the No. 2 Wisconsin women's hockey team heads out to Pittsburgh to face Robert Morris Dec. 1-2, the weekend will have extra special meaning for UW senior Phoebe Monteleone.
The assistant captain and Pittsburgh native will have the opportunity to go home and play in front of friends that she rarely gets to see as well as her parents, Jim and Lucy, who frequently hit the road to follow the Badgers.
'My parents travel so much for me and my other three sisters because we all played sports growing up,' Monteleone said. 'It's a great chance just to go home and have them be there and for friends I have that go to college in Pennsylvania, for them to be able to come.
'It means a lot, especially in my senior year, to get to go home and play. '
The location was not the only thing that promised to make this weekend special for Monteleone. One of her younger sisters, Jenny, is a sophomore on the Robert Morris women 's hockey team.
Both Phoebe and Jenny were excited to see the match-up when it appeared on the schedule.
'I pushed for it a little on the schedule and we were really fired up once it actually happened because I didn't think that it would,' the older Monteleone said.
Unfortunately, Jenny suffered a season-ending injury in her third game this season, ruining the highly-anticipated sisterly showdown.
'Jenny and I played together growing up and I thought this would be a sweet chance to go head-to-head,' Phoebe said. 'We were so pumped and then she got hurt, but she's excited for us to come down there anyway.'
While Jenny's injury made an on-ice meeting between the two sisters impossible, Phoebe thought that one member of the Monteleone family might take a small amount of solace in the situation.
'My sister was pretty bummed, but it will probably be easier on my mom because she won't have to cheer for two teams. Hopefully she'll be cheering for us a little bit more.'
Monteleone will get her chance to play in front of a hometown crowd when the Badgers (14-1-1) take on the Colonials (5-7-2) Dec. 1-2 at the RMU Island Sports Center. Faceoff is set for 6:35 p.m. CT on Friday and 1:05 p.m. CT on Saturday.
Notes:
Last weekend's series against Minnesota-Duluth was the Badgers' final home series until the New Year, when they take on non-conference foe Providence January 12-13. Until then, however, the UW will meet three opponents on the road, beginning with a non-conference battle against Robert Morris December 1-2.
Despite falling to Minnesota-Duluth last Friday, the Wisconsin women's hockey team regrouped and posted a rare shutout of the Bulldogs on Saturday. The game marked only the second time that UW has ever shut out Minnesota Duluth and the first since Jan. 14, 2005.
Junior Jinelle Zaugg provided the winning margin and became the fifth Badger to reach 50 career goals on Saturday. The 6-1 forward from Eagle River, Wis., joins Meghan Hunter (84 goals), Kendra Antony (67), senior Sara Bauer (63) and Jackie Friesen (53) in the 50-goal club.
In her last season between the posts for the Badgers, Christine Dufour improved to 6-0-0, which places her tied for first in the nation with a 1.000 winning percentage. In addition, the Quebec native currently stands third in the country with a 1.17 goals against average.
As a team, Wisconsin's effective scoring offense is ranked fourth in the nation alongside New Hampshire. Additionally, only Harvard stands ahead of the UW as the best scoring defense in the country.
Interestingly, Wisconsin and Robert Morris have never met on the ice hockey rink before. However, the Badgers went 3-0-0 against teams from the College Hockey America conference last season, sweeping Wayne State and topping Mercyhurst 2-1 in double overtime in the NCAA quarterfinals.
The Colonials, who have yet to play a conference match, are coming off a 1-1 tie with Providence. Against Providence, sophomore goaltender Brianne McLaughlin accumulated 44 saves and picked up the CHA Defensive Player of the Week honor for the third week in the row.
McLaughlin has garnered the award four times this season, also recently being recognized at the national level as the USCHO.com Defensive Player of the Week for the second time in her career.
RMU skaters Alissa Dorman and Kristen Miles have each notched nine goals and four assists in 14 games, making them the team's leading scorers. Teammate Maria Olausson is the top playmaker with 14 assists. Olausson also leads the team in points with 16.
