The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/womens_hockey/)
Fellow ECAC teams joining Cornell in the USA Today Top 10 are Clarkson at No. 6 and Princeton — which downed the Red in last year’s ECAC title game — at No. 7. Division foes also receiving votes, but not landing in the top 10, were Quinnipiac, Colgate and Harvard.
The new Cornellians will fill the void left by six skaters who graduated last spring, including three Patty Kazmaier Award nominees in defensemen Jaime Bourbonnais and Micah Zandee-Hart and forward Kristin O’Neill.
Cornell’s women’s and men’s teams were both No. 1 in the country at the end of a season cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the men’s and women’s teams saw their runs in the postseason cut short, they both achieved the end-of-season No. 1 ranking for their efforts throughout the year.
The sudden shift from pre-March Madness excitement to a sports-less spring — heartbreaking for players and fans around the country — is nobody’s top concern right now. The NCAA and pro sports leagues are 100 percent right to shut down.
Cornell’s hockey teams were both ranked No. 1 in the country.
“It takes a little bit of everything at this time of year, but I think that all eight teams that are in the NCAA Tournament this year can win it,” Derraugh said.
In her first year as the everyday starting goaltender for Cornell women’s hockey, junior Lindsay Browning set a single-season program record with 12 shutouts, was named Ivy League Player of the Year and conceded only one loss on home ice all season. But in high school, she almost walked away from hockey altogether.
Cornell will face Mercyhurst in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“From the beginning of the year, the conversation has always been that we want to get back [to the Frozen Four], but we want to go further,” said junior forward Finley Frechette.