MADISON, Wis. -- The Wisconsin women's hockey program announced Thursday that goaltender Kennedy Blair will join the Badgers for the 2020-21 season. 

A native of Bismarck, North Dakota, Blair arrives at UW as a grad transfer after spending three seasons at Mercyhurst. Prior to her time with the Lakers, she spent a redshirt year at North Dakota before the Fighting Hawks disbanded their program after the 2016-17 season. 

"We're excited to welcome Kennedy to our program," UW head coach Mark Johnson said. "She brings a lot of experience to our group after playing three years at Mercyhurst and her redshirt year at North Dakota. She's familiar with a couple of kids in our program as she grew up in the same town as Britta (Curl) and spent her year at UND with Soupy (Kristen Campbell)."

Blair played in 69 games for Mercyhurst and held a career .917 save percentage and a 2.11 goals-against average. During the 2019-20 season for the Lakers, Blair went 17-8-3 as her .661 winning percentage ranked in the top-10 nationally while her 1.98 GAA ranked second in the CHA. Blair was awarded the CHA Goaltender of the Week honor three times during the 2019-20 season and was named the CHA All-Tournament Team MVP after making 31 stops in the CHA title game against Robert Morris. 

During her redshirt freshman season at Mercyhurst, Blair was named to the All-CHA Rookie Team and  won the CHA Goaltender Trophy after posting a .934 save percentage in net for the Lakers. She was also named the Mercyhurst Freshman Athlete of the Year. 

Prior to her time at Mercyhurst, Blair spent a redshirt year at North Dakota with former Badger All-American goaltender Kristen Campbell.

During her prep career, Blair was a 2016 USA National Goalie Development Camp Participant, a 2014 USA U-18 Development Camp participant and was the MVP of the North Dakota State Tournament as a freshman in 2013. 

Blair is the sixth new Badger to arrive in Madison, joining a group of five freshmen - Jane Gervais, Casey O'Brien, Mayson Toft, Makenna Webster and Maddi Wheeler. Learn more about the freshmen class here.