Women's Hockey At Wisconsin
 
Over the past couple of years women's hockey at Wisconsin has seen
a marked increase in participation.
 
Two years ago, the University had two club teams, one which played
at the A level and the other which played at the C level.  Last year
the program expanded to three teams, one at each of the levels (A, B,
and C).
 
This year, a major the club underwent a major reorganizational change.
The A and B teams moved off campus to create a second oportunity for
adult women to play hockey.  In addition to that there are still two
teams on campus, a C team with most members returning from last year
and a new beginner team with many women who had never played hockey
until a couple of months ago.
 
One of the reasons for reorganization was the hope that within five
years Wisconsin will have a varsity program for women's hockey.
This seems to be a reasonable given the increased interest seen
in women's hockey both at the University (the aforementioned doubling
in size in 2 years) and at the youth level.
 
Hopefully the off campus program will continue to grow.  Thus
when the on campus program reaches varsity status it will be a fully
developed program to meet the needs of women ineligible for varsity
competition.  I think this is a great issue to address when moving
from the club level to varsity in any sport, since you don't want
to leave the founders and active members without a team just because
they aren't full time students or are past the age limits.  As much
as I back the push for women's varsity programs I think it would be
ashame to see the spirit of club sports become a thing of the past.
 
Throughout the year I will post the scores of the C team's games,
since I play on that team and thus have access to the results.
I will also post as many of the beginners scores as I can.
 
After a season opening road trip to St. Paul and Buffalo, MN, the C team
was 1-1-1.  We lost 5-2 to the Bladerunners in our opener
Saturday afternoon 11/20 and then beat the Buffalo team 4-0 that night.
The next morning we skated to a shutout tie with the Buffalo team.
 
I know that the beginners team won their first game and have tied another
since then.  I beleive that they have also lost 2 games.
 
Both teams lost the first of 2 home games this weekend, with the C team
playing the defending champions from UW River Falls.  The C team score was
7-1 and the beginner's score was 4-0.
 
Wendy Istvanick
Go Badgers!!