The defending American Women’s College Hockey Alliance’s National Champion and the defending ECAC Champions, the Wildcats of New Hampshire, were picked to finish first in the ECAC Women’s Division I Coaches Preseason Poll.
The Wildcats received six of the 14 first place votes and amassed a total of 185 points.
“I think that our team expects to be in the top four, but I am a little surprised that we were picked number one,” said New Hampshire head coach Karen Kay. “We lost the Kazmaier Award winner in Brandy Fisher and last year’s national championship tournament MVP Winny Brodt. Those types of losses can certainly affect any teams’ success.”
Brown received four first place votes and finished second, while Northeastern received three first place votes to finish third. The other first place vote went to the number four team, Harvard.
The Women’s Division I league will return several Gold Medal Winning Olympians this season. Tara Mounsey returns to Brown, Sara Decosta returns to Providence and Harvard has two in A.J. Mleczko and Angela Ruggiero. Harvard also adds Jen Botterill from the Canadian Olympic team.
