Tuesday, January 09, 2007

UNH finally back on national roster


When I went to Salt Lake City in 2002 my prime motivation was to see women's hockey, not just because I am a huge fan but because University of New Hampshire, my alma mater, had quite a few former players on the team. Well at least it did when I bought my tickets. By the time the games had rolled around most of the UNH contingent had been cut--all of the players who were my contemporaries had been axed. Later I heard that the whole cutting process was pretty contentious and actually led to a lot of team tension that could have possibly affected the team's overall performance.

Since that time, UNH players have been shut out of places on the national squad. And I had thought that trend was continuing when I heard at the UNH-Harvard game that Harvard coach Katey Stone, a UNH alum herself, and also coach of the U-22 Select team had cut quite a few UNHers from her squad in August. [The US squad ended up losing 2 out of 3 games to Canada in their series.]

But I recently discovered (a few months late because of lack of coverage) that Kacey Bellamy played on the senior team during the Four Nations Tournament in November. Bellamy is only a sophomore so if she continues to perform well she should be making repeat performances on the national team. I couldn't find too much about her performance other than an assist in one game and two hooking penalties in another.

[Also representing UNH is former player and current associate coach, Erin Whitten.]

Bellamy is also from my current neck of the woods so she feels like a local, which is probably why there was a vocal Bellamy fan club at the UNH-UConn game this past weekend. (UNH won 6-2. Should have been shut-out but crazy penalty calls by the refs in the last few minutes prevented that.)

Unfortunately the US still cannot seem to overcome the Canadians despite the presence of strong veterans, up and coming stars, and a new coach. Canada beat the US twice, including the gold medal game.

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