The Cornell women’s hockey program has bested all its competitors in number of players invited to participate in Canada’s U22 National Selection Camp. Nine players from the Red’s roster have been called back to this August camp –– a count that is more than double Boston University’s four invitees. The nine women from Cornell will comprise over a fifth of the 42 total icers selected to compete for spots on the Canadian National U22 team.
Among the nine Cornellians participating will be rising junior Rebecca Johnston, who helped Canada’s Olympic team take home the gold in the 2010 Vancouver games. Also representing the Red will be rising freshman Brianne Jenner, who participated in the camp last year and went on to compete in the MLP Cup in Germany. Jenner was recruited to Cornell’s squad prior to the 2009-10 school year, but deferred for a year so she could participate in Canada’s senior Olympic training camp.
Speaking of deferring, Riley Nash will be deferring his final year at Cornell –– indefinitely. Rather than playing under head coach Mike Schafer ’86 for a final season with the men’s hockey team, the younger Nash will forgo his senior year and join his brother in the pros as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes.
With the departure of Nash and six other members from last season’s team that topped the ECAC, the Red will look to younger players to fill the void in the starting lineup.
Schafer adds six new players to the roster, including rising freshman goaltender Andy Iles –– the former netminder for the U.S. U18 National Team that defeated Cornell in an exhibition game early last season. Iles, along with rising junior Michael Garman who is expected to start in net, can only hope to live up to the legacies left by Ben Scrivens ’10 (who is on the roster for the Toronto Maple Leafs) and David LeNeveu. LeNeveu played with the Red from 2001-03, setting the NCAA Divison I record for career goals-against average (1.29) and tallying more shutouts than the legendary Ken Dryden ”69. LeNeveu recently returned to the U.S. from an Austrian hockey league to sign a one-year contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Looking beyond the pipes, rising freshman forward Armand de Swardt will hopefully take to the ice aggressively and live up to his reputation of having a killer wrist shot. This 6-5 power forward will join returning players such as rising sophomore Erik Axell on the offense.
Axell’s classmate, forward Chris Moulson, will also return to the Red’s roster for the 2010-11 season. Moulson’s older brother also has some Cornell blood in him and joins other hockey alumni who are making this school proud beyond the collegiate level. Matt Moulson ’06 recently re-signed with the New York Islanders for one year, after finishing fourth on the team with 48 points last season.
With the departure of so many talented veterans, the men’s hockey team is not expected to go as far as it did last year. However, the players will hopefully be able to follow the example set by the men’s lacrosse team in 2010. The lacrosse squad was another young team that managed to progress to the NCAA Final Four after it was projected to falter due to the graduation of 16 seniors, including Max Seibald ’09.
Seibald was just named to the All-World lacrosse team, along with another Cornell alumnus, Ryan McClay ’03. The pair will play at midfield and defense, respectively, after they helped take the United States to the Federation of International Lacrosse World Championship on Saturday.
Also present at the Federation of International Lacrosse World Championships, held in Manchester, England, was incoming freshman Sten Jernudd. Jernudd will join the already-decorated lacrosse roster under assistant-turned-head coach Ben DeLuca ’98.
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Original Author: Reena Gilani