The Wisconsin women’s hockey team added two more skaters for the 2012-’13 season. Forward Erika Sowchuk and goaltender Jorie Walters signed their National Letters of Intent to bring the 2012-’13 recruiting class to a total of six.
Sowchuk played for the Edge School in Calgary, Alberta where she scored a team-high 34 points (12 goals, 22 assists) in the 2011-’12 season. In her time at the Edge School, the Fernie, British Columbia native was named a 2010-’11 Junior Women’s Hockey League First Team All-Star and a 2011-’12 JWHL Second Team All-Star.
“Erika [Sowchuk]will be a great power forward for us,” associate head coach Dan Koch said. “She has great size and works hard in the corners. She has great vision on the ice and the ability to make things happen offensively.”
Sowchuk also played in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League in the 2011-’12 season and netted six goals and two assists in only seven games.
Sowchuk has spent time on the Canadian U-18 national team. Making the team in 2011-’12, she played in a three-game series against the United States. Sowchuk then participated at the U-18 Women’s World Championship in the Czech Republic in 2011-’12. She scored one goal and one assist for Team Canada in its gold medal run.
Walters joins the team after attending high school at Shattuck-St. Mary’s where she had a record of 24-4-1 in the 2011-’12 season. The Grinnell, Iowa native recorded three shutouts during her senior season and finished with a .922 save percentage and a 1.78 goals against average.
Walters helped her team win multiple tournaments and national championships during her time at Shattuck-St. Mary’s. She won the 2010 USA Hockey Tier-1 U-16 national championship and the 2011 Tier-1 U-19 national championship.
In 2012, she helped her team to a third-place finish in the Tier-1 U-19 National Championship, first place at the NIT Nike Bauer Tournament and first place at the Culver Invitational Tournament.
“She has consistently been rated as one of the hardest working goalies at Shattuck in its history, on both the boys’ and girls’ side,” Koch said. “She plays big and battles well to fund pucks through screens and crowds in front of the net.”
UWBadgers.com contributed to this report.
