Three Nations Tournament Team USA Women, Canada and Finland will be competing in the Three Nations Cup starting October 20th in preparation for the 1997 Women's World Championship. The games will take place mostly in and around Ottawa, but on Tuesday October 22nd TUSAW will play TFW at St. Lawrence University's Appleton Arena at 7:30 p.m.. This is a significant tourney as it features the top three teams in women's international ice hockey. I don't expect TUSAW to have their top team together for this event as x-number of players are enrolled in college right now. I do expect that coach Ben Smith will continue to tryout a number of players as he attempts to find the best mix for the USA. Team USA Women I continue to be impressed with the amount of training Ben Smith is having for the USA team. The sessions which give players out of school a chance to practice and play at a high level also have a few current college students (in theory Harvard's Allison Mleczko). It is impressive to see the amount of time and energy these players are giving to their sport. Many will be putting their lives (school, jobs, family) on hold for the next two years as they prepare for WWC '97 and the Olympics in 1998. The ECAC Women's League is going to have the former feeling of Division I Men's hockey during an Olympic year over the next two seasons as the top players take varying amounts of time off for national team commitments. There may not be a big money contracts at the end of it all for the women, but the sure joy of competing at the highest level must be an incredible thrill. Team Canada Women I read that the Canadian women are now receiving $810 a month from Sport Canada to help fund their full-time training in Calgary. It sounds like the Men's World Cup of Hockey, which the USA won, has had an effect on the thinking of the Canadian coaches. The Three Nations Cup should tell more on the overall psyche of TCW. Vicki Sunohara, who was a dominating player for Northeastern, is trying out for Team Canada. She last competed for Canada in WWC '90. Midwest Alliance Schedules for Augsburg, Gustavus, Wisconsin-River Falls and Wisconsin-Eau Claire are now in the Women's Composite (Hockey-L archives: 9697WCMP SCHEDULE). The new Minnesota-Wisconsin based league will be lifting off their season at the start of November. There will be no league standings for the Midwest Alliance as there are no set league games. The play-offs will be seeded by consensus. Harvard Women honors During the Harvard Men's Alumni game (and yes Lane MacDonald remains the most electrifying skater I've ever seen on the Bright ice) I had a chance to look around the rink. I noticed that every men's award, rather engraved, painted or sewn was current and done perfectly. On the other hand, the women's awards were all one to three years behind, and often done poorly. What irritated me was the Women's Beanpot banner. The last two wins are jammed on and crooked, and the 1995 triumph was only added recently, not last season. On October 1st the Title IX yearly reports were issued by athletic departments on where they spend their money in relation to men and women. Overall Harvard still spends 2 to 1 for the men. In recruiting it is 4-1, and the women coaches are paid less. You can wash some of the overall difference by the cost of putting on American football and men's ice hockey, and hopefully the ticket money covers some of that cost. The women's ice hockey team is getting better funding than it was a few years ago. However I am left with the same feeling I had when this boiled up two years ago. The Harvard attitude towards women's sports still has a lot to be desired. I think UNH's salute to its women's ice hockey players seems spot on. It would be nice to see that attitude at Harvard. _____________ / good shooting hungerf _____________/ HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.