USA Hockey today announced Mercyhurst freshman forward Meghan Agosta, Wisconsin senior forward Sara Bauer and Harvard senior forward Julie Chu are the three finalists for the 2007 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the award is presented annually by The USA Hockey Foundation to the top player in NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey.
The trio represents three different NCAA Division I women’s ice hockey conferences – College Hockey America (Agosta), the ECAC Hockey League (Chu) and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (Bauer). Bauer won the award last year and Chu was a top-10 finalist in 2005.
This year’s winner will be revealed at an award ceremony on March 17 at the Hilton Lake Placid Resort in Lake Placid, N.Y., in conjunction with the NCAA Women’s Frozen Four. It will feature the three finalists, the Frozen Four participating teams and five former winners of the award.
Agosta, the unanimous CHA Player and Rookie of the Year, is the first-ever freshman to become a top-three finalist for the Kazmaier Award. In her rookie season with Mercyhurst, she led the Lakers to their first national No. 1 ranking in program history. Meanwhile, she put up 66 regular-season points to tie for first in the nation and led the country with 34 goals, 16 power-play goals and five shorthanded goals.
One of college hockey’s finest players for a second consecutive year, Bauer is the WCHA Player of the Year and scoring champion. After leading Wisconsin to the national title last year, she helped the Badgers stay within the top three of the national rankings during the entire 2006-07 regular season. During that time she amassed 63 points (23-40) to rank third in the country and registered at least a point in 28 of the team’s games.
Chu recorded 66 points during the 2006-07 regular season to tie for first nationally. In addition, the First Team All-ECACHL selection led the country with 48 assists, 2.36 points per game and 1.71 assists per game, as she posted at least a point in all but one of the 27 games she played. She currently has over 280 points in her four-year career at Harvard, tops in NCAA history.
