RPI Women's Hockey

[purple_and_gold10]

Originally posted by hab
Personally, I like to see the match-ups between top Div 3 teams and lower tier Div 1 teams and certainly last year RPI showed well in those games. However, the reality is that for two years in a row RPI has narrowly missed being chosen for the Div 3 nationals after finishing second to Manhattanville in the ECAC East. Both years, two or even three teams have been chosen from each of NESCAC and ECAC West with only Manhattanville qualifying from ECAC East. RPI's impressive showings against Div 1 teams do not count in the ranking formulae, and once you take those games away RPI's strength of schedule was a notch below a few of the other contenders. I think that RPI has made the right choice here, even though I would have loved to see an opportunity to rub some salt in the wounds of Clarkson following last year's 2-2 tie:D

RPI is taking the right step in their final year of D3 hockey....I think if they perform like they did last year and a little better they will find theirselves right up there with the top teams...they just cant have any let down games and they gotta play those top new teams they added tough....

[RPIHFH]

Utica was also on RPI's schedule last year

Originally posted by Ralph Baer
I was looking at the schedule for next year. The OOC games are vs Union, Williams, Elmira,, Utica, Sacred Heart, and Plattsburgh. Union, Williams, and Sacred Heart were also on last years's schedule, so Elmira, Utica, and Plattsburgh replace Clarkson, Vermont, and Quinnipiac, three D-I teams. So it looks like RPI has indeed tried to play an improved D-III schedule for their last D-III season instead of gradually playing more D-I opponents. Does anyone have any comments?

[Ralph Baer]

Originally posted by RPIHFH
Utica was also on RPI's schedule last year You are right. I also missed Wesleyan on last year's schedule. There are games this year vs Castleton State and St Anselm.

So, it looks like Castleton State, St Anselm, Elmira and Plattsburgh replace Vermont, Clarkson, Wesleyan, and Quinnipiac.

[purple_and_gold10]

Originally posted by Ralph Baer
You are right. I also missed Wesleyan on last year's schedule. There are games this year vs Castleton State and St Anselm.

So, it looks like Castleton State, St Anselm, Elmira and Plattsburgh replace Vermont, Clarkson, Wesleyan, and Quinnipiac.

Id take it...Elmira and Plattsburgh...two of the best in the country...:) and those 2 games mean something NCAA's wise unlike those D1 games....should be great tests for RPI in their final year of D3 hockey....we will see what the engineers have finally!:D :cool:

[hab]

The most challenging part of the Engineers schedule might be the challenge of getting sharp early in the season, given their soft November schedule. The opener Oct 30 against Union will be tough, but then they have a stretch of 7 games in November against the likes of Castleton, St. Anselm, MIT and Salve Regina, probably the four weakest teams in the conference, and Mass Boston. When they go up against Williams and RIT before the Christmas break they won't have had a lot of real competition under their belt. But after Christmas things get interesting, starting with Manhattanville and ending with Plattsburgh. Come to think of it, may not be a bad schedule if you want to build up for a peak for the Final Four.;)

[hab]

Any news about recruits for the fall besides for Barbera and McNamara?
Still haven't heard anything about the Engineers recruits for this year, apart from these two promising sounding defencemen, announced some time ago. I assume that by now the team is assembled and at least doing dryland training, so can someone close to the team feed us any news on other frosh? Any thoughts on forward lines for this year? At the end of last season they had Daniel centering a line with Aho and Langille, all of whom are returning. But they also need to give some thought to making sure that Welte is paired up with some offensive strength, to make use of her strength around the net.

[Ralph Baer]

Still haven't heard anything about the Engineers recruits for this year, apart from these two promising sounding defencemen, announced some time ago. I assume that by now the team is assembled and at least doing dryland training, so can someone close to the team feed us any news on other frosh? Any thoughts on forward lines for this year? At the end of last season they had Daniel centering a line with Aho and Langille, all of whom are returning. But they also need to give some thought to making sure that Welte is paired up with some offensive strength, to make use of her strength around the net.
Also, the "Skate With The Engineers" after the men's R&W game should include the new recruits.

I wonder if next year, when the women will be D-I and allowed to practice earlier, there will be a women's R&W game.

[Ralph Baer]

T-U article about the RPI women's hockey team participating in a walk for the benefit of heart disease: http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=290058&category=SPORTS&newsdate=9/29/2004 They better get back in time for the Skate With The Engineers :D

[rpi_fan03]

hab- Welte will miss a few games at the beginning of the year due to some surgery in off-season....so the lines will be changed accordingly when she returns I'm sure.

Rumor also has it that some offensive defensemen from last year will possibly be moved to forward this year....apparently the majority of recruits are d-men. I have no exact numbers unfortunately, but you'll all be able to see if you come out to Skate with the Engineers this weekend! :D

[hab]

Thanks for the info, '03. Sorry to hear the news that Welte will miss a few games 'though :( . Hopefully she will be back and at the top of her game when the Engineers hit the really tough part of their schedule after Christmas. With Welte on the sidelines and no recruits at forward, they will need to get a great effort from a few key offensive players to get them past Union. This season will be a real test for a lot of players as they work to prove that they are D1 caliber. Hope that I get to see a few games.

[leeb]

Ok, so now we know a little about the new recruits. The only name I could make out (is it just me or does our PA system stink?) when the players were introduced before the Skate with the Engineers was Chelsea Ward and something or other Schillinger (sp?). We already knew about Ellen McNamara and Kelly Barbera. There was another player announced as a Sophomore with a very, to me anyway, French / Canadian sounding name. I didn't recognize her as a returning player so I'm assuming she is a transfer from somewhere. I'm interested in seeing where she's coming from.

I did a little web hunting and came up with a Chelsea Ward playing boys' high school hockey in New Jersey as a goaltender. Assuming this is her, it looks like we have a whopping 4 goalies this year! With Schiff returning next year and Johnston and Ward (again, I'm assuming), we're more than set in goal.

Ward is in the RPI directory but I couldn't find a Schillinger, or any derivative of that name. I probably just didn't find the right spelling.

Any more information about these newcomers would be much appreciated. Hopefully this Schillinger and French Canadian Girl are highly skilled forwards who will put the biscuit in the basket!!

rpi-fan03 - Any inside info?

[Ralph Baer]

Ok, so now we know a little about the new recruits. The only name I could make out (is it just me or does our PA system stink?) when the players were introduced before the Skate with the Engineers was Chelsea Ward and something or other Schillinger (sp?). We already knew about Ellen McNamara and Kelly Barbera. There was another player announced as a Sophomore with a very, to me anyway, French / Canadian sounding name. I didn't recognize her as a returning player so I'm assuming she is a transfer from somewhere. I'm interested in seeing where she's coming from.

I did a little web hunting and came up with a Chelsea Ward playing boys' high school hockey in New Jersey as a goaltender. Assuming this is her, it looks like we have a whopping 4 goalies this year! With Schiff returning next year and Johnston and Ward (again, I'm assuming), we're more than set in goal.

Ward is in the RPI directory but I couldn't find a Schillinger, or any derivative of that name. I probably just didn't find the right spelling.

Any more information about these newcomers would be much appreciated. Hopefully this Schillinger and French Canadian Girl are highly skilled forwards who will put the biscuit in the basket!!

rpi-fan03 - Any inside info?
There is a Sarah Salinger on the field hockey team. That's close to Schillinger.

[Ralph Baer]

Poly article: http://www.poly.rpi.edu/article_view.php3?view=3346&part=1

[Ralph Baer]

Ok, so now we know a little about the new recruits. The only name I could make out (is it just me or does our PA system stink?) when the players were introduced before the Skate with the Engineers was Chelsea Ward and something or other Schillinger (sp?). We already knew about Ellen McNamara and Kelly Barbera. There was another player announced as a Sophomore with a very, to me anyway, French / Canadian sounding name. I didn't recognize her as a returning player so I'm assuming she is a transfer from somewhere. I'm interested in seeing where she's coming from.

I did a little web hunting and came up with a Chelsea Ward playing boys' high school hockey in New Jersey as a goaltender. Assuming this is her, it looks like we have a whopping 4 goalies this year! With Schiff returning next year and Johnston and Ward (again, I'm assuming), we're more than set in goal.

Ward is in the RPI directory but I couldn't find a Schillinger, or any derivative of that name. I probably just didn't find the right spelling.

Any more information about these newcomers would be much appreciated. Hopefully this Schillinger and French Canadian Girl are highly skilled forwards who will put the biscuit in the basket!!

rpi-fan03 - Any inside info?
leeb,

I don't know if you saw this page http://www.princetontigerlilies.com/news.htm but on the bottom it states that Chelsea Ward is going to RPI.

[leeb]

Thanks Ralph,

I must have missed that in my search. It certainly sounds like she's a good player. The most relevant part of the article regarding Ward is this...

"Midget goalie Chelsea Ward (Willingboro, NJ) was given the game puck by her coaches and teammates as the tournament MVP. The final championship game showed Ward stopping 45 shots."

I wish we knew a little more about the other couple of recruits. I'll have to pick up the current Poly for the hockey insert. Maybe there's a little info on the women's recruits.

[leeb]

Ok, so I stopped by the Tute today and picked up the latest edition of the Poly with the hockey preview. There is a surprisingly good amount of articles and information on the women's team. In terms of incoming Lady Engineers, here's what we're looking at :

Ellen McNamara (Defense) - Played for Little Caesars 19U

Kelly Barbera (Defense) - the Gunnery School

Chelsea Ward (showing as a Forward **) - Princeton Tiger Lilies 19U

Kirstin Schoeninger (Forward) - Philadelphia Little Flyers 19U

Brooke Thompson (Forward) - ???

Ciara Libaridian (Defense) - Coming to RPI as a Sophomore. Played in 10
games last year at D1 Findlay. Previously played
for the California Selects 19U.

** Chelsea Ward has always shown up as a Goaltender in any web searches I've done. I guess we'll just have to see what she brings to the table as either a Forward or in Goal.

Let's get some discussion going here!! Anybody know anything about the newcomers? Does anyone want to venture an opinion on how this group stacks up against other incoming classes in the ECAC East?

[Ralph Baer]

Ciara Libaridian (Defense) - Coming to RPI as a Sophomore. Played in 10 games last year at D1 Findlay. Previously played for the California Selects 19U.

http://www.uscho.com/stats/player.php?pid=3521&gender=w

[hab]

Chelsea Ward (showing as a Forward **) - Princeton Tiger Lilies 19U

Kirstin Schoeninger (Forward) - Philadelphia Little Flyers 19U



Let's get some discussion going here!! Anybody know anything about the newcomers? Does anyone want to venture an opinion on how this group stacks up against other incoming classes in the ECAC East?[/QUOTE]

Did a bit of checking on Ward and Kirsty Schoeninger. Both played in the Atlantic U19 league last year, which tends to produce a fair number of Div 3 recruits and the occassional Div 1, it seems. (One notable recent product from this league was Vicki Graham, the leading scorer for Quinnipiac last year). These were the two top teams in the league last year, and Schoeninger finished fifth in scoring: in 12 games picked up 5G 12A for 17 points and only 6 PIMs. Ward played 11 of 12 league games in net for her team, and led the league in GAA with 1.72, and 89% save percentage.

All in all, looks like a pretty good Div 3 class, and hopefully some of these recruits will prove to have solid Div 1 capability over the next couple years. :)

I have heard through the grapevine that the Engineers have an exhibition against the Aeros from Toronto on October 23. Presumably that is the Junior Aeros (U22) who play Princeton the day before and Cornell the day after. Last year I think they lost 7-0 to Princeton but then either tied Cornell or beat them by a goal, so this should be a good test for RPI. Anybody able to confirm this? Unfortunately, by then the Aeros will already have 10 games under their belt!!!

[BLW]

From The Aeros website

http://www.aeroshockey.com/junior-aeros-0405.html

Fri 22 Oct
Princeton
vs
Junior Aeros
Baker Rink 3:30 pm


Sat 23 Oct
N J Colonials
vs
Junior Aeros
tba


Sun 24 Oct
Cornell
vs
Junior Aeros
Lynah Rink 2:00 pm

[hab]

The reference to the Aeros playing NJ Colonials on the 23rd may be out of date, as I note that on the Colonials website they show a game against someone else that day. So I'm still hopeful that the rumour is true that RPI is lined up to play the Junior Aeros.