August 17, 2010

Twelve Ivy Leaguers To Faceoff In Women’s Hockey Under-22 Series

Portions Courtesy of Cornell Athletic Communications & Brown Sports Information

PRINCETON, N.J. –- Though the women’s hockey season is not slated to begin for almost two months, many of the Ivy League’s stars will faceoff against each other in an upcoming three-game series between the United States and Canada. The series, which will feature each country’s Under-22 roster, will be played August 18th through the 21st at the MasterCard Centre in Toronto, Canada and is set to feature 12 Ivy League players and one head coach.

Brown head coach Margaret "Digit" Murphy will continue her involvement with USA Hockey by serving as the head coach of the U-22 squad. Murphy has been involved with USA Hockey since the early 1990s, when she served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Women's National Team at the 1992 IIHF World Women's Championship. Since then, she served as an assistant coach for the U.S. at the 1996 Women's Three Nations Cup and has been involved in Player Development Camps and Women's National Festivals.

Team USA also features four student-athletes from four different Ivy League institutions. The student-athlete quartet is headlined by 2009-10 All-Ivy Second Team selections Bray Ketchum of Yale and Sasha Sherry of Princeton. Fellow rising senior Josepine Pucci, who plays forward at Harvard, joins Ketchum, a forward, and Sherry, a defender, on Team USA.

Dartmouth defender and rising sophomore Amanda Trunzo rounds out Team USA’s Ivy contingent. Sherry, Pucci and Trunzo will be making their Team USA debuts.

While Team USA boasts ties to five different Ivy League schools, Team Canada has a distinct Big Red feel to it as eight Cornell players help comprise the 22-player roster.

Headlining the group of players selected to represent Canada is Rebecca Johnston, who played two years at Cornell before taking the 2009-10 season off to play for the Canadian National Team at the Vancouver Olympics. Joining her is another player who was centralized with the National Team but released just prior to the Olympics in fellow forward Brianne Jenner. Johnston will be a junior in 2010-11, while Jenner will be beginning her first season at Cornell.

Making a return to the team after competing last year with the U-22 National Team are defensemen Laura Fortino and Laurianne Rougeau and forward Catherine White. The trio won a gold medal with Team Canada at the 2010 MLP Cup in Ravensburg, Germany, last January. Rougeau, last season’s Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and Fortino will be sophomores this season at Cornell, with White, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, entering her junior season.

Also joining the roster is forward Jessica Campbell, who played on the Canadian U18 National Team last year, winning a gold medal at the IIHF World Championships in Chicago, Ill. Campbell will be a freshman with the Big Red in 2010-11.

The final two representatives from Cornell are both rising juniors with goaltender Amanda Mazzotta and forward Chelsea Karpenko.

The 2010 U-22 Series features three 7:00 p.m. (EDT) contests at the MasterCard Centre, beginning with game one on Wednesday, August 18. Game two will be played on Thursday, Aug. 19 and the series concludes on Saturday, Aug. 21.