When I was younger and still lived at home, no matter what happened at school during the day—whether I had a fight with a friend, did poorly on a test, was disciplined by a teacher, or stepped right in the middle of a mud puddle and ruined my shoes—I knew that as soon as I walked through my front door, all of the pressures of school would disappear because I was surrounded by my family and felt safe and happy. Similarly, whenever I arrive at the rink for practice, a video session, or a game, that same feeling overtakes me; regardless of the day I am having, when I step into Hobey Baker Rink and enter our locker room with my team, I am in my happy place where I feel safe, surrounded by my “family”.
This weekend as we embark on our second road trip of the year to Syracuse, I am of course looking forward to competing in the games and returning home with two more wins, but also towards creating even more memories and spending time with my teammates. Princeton women’s ice hockey is coming into this weekend feeling confident. We currently stand first in both the ECAC and the Ivy League, at 3-0-1 in league play. As we enter our fourth week of the season, our team really seems to be jelling and our team dynamic is definitely contributing to our success on the ice. When we are together, our class years are erased and we all just hangout and enjoy each other’s company. While I do think our team dynamic can be attributed to many different factors, I believe that it can be mainly accredited to our common desire to win and be recognized as one of the top teams in the country.
Although we have not yet received more than two votes in the top ten rankings, we are all confident that we not only belong in that grouping, but can dominate it. We have the depth this year to be really successful and if we all pull our weight and buy into the program and our team culture, we will hopefully keep winning.
After we face-off against Syracuse, we have another big weekend in front of us. In two weeks we will host Colgate on Friday night and Cornell on Saturday afternoon. These are two top-ten teams, and we are excited to prove ourselves against them. On Friday night, we are advertising our game as “Blackout Baker” and encouraging students and fans to support us. Custom black-out t-shirts were designed and will be given out to the first 500 fans at our game. Hopefully, with the support of our fans, we will be able to maintain our league standing and stay on top!
Win or lose, we will all continue to enjoy the ride, be grateful, and keep making memories and friendships that will last forever!
