Entering college is a stressful experience for any student, but especially so for student-athletes. Not only must they go through the typical process of meeting new friends and professors, but they must also adjust to a new group of teammates and coaches while playing a sport at the highest level.
For the freshmen of Wisconsin’s women’s hockey team, that task was made much easier by a wealth of prior experience playing together for the USA Under-18 National Team. All five of the incoming skaters, Alexis Mauermann, Abby Roque, Presley Norby, Maddie Rowe and Mekenzie Steffen, played for the U.S. in one of the last two IIHF U-18 Women’s World Championships, as well as a variety of select and developmental teams.
“It’s made it a lot easier already knowing people, and them being so close to you. It helps on the ice with chemistry,” Mauermann said. “You’re like, ‘all right, these people I went to school with, these people I played with,’ and it definitely makes it more exciting too, because you know people on the team.”
With junior forward Annie Pankowski out of the lineup, Mauermann was placed on a line with Roque and sophomore Sophia Shaver against Bemidji State. Surrounded by teammates she had known since childhood, Mauermann had a breakout series, scoring all three of her season’s goals in just two games.
Getting to play for a national team during the collegiate season can also be a valuable change of scenery for players who are not performing to expectations. Pankowski, who led the Badgers in scoring last season, had yet to collect a goal this year when she was called to join the U.S. National Team in the Four Nations Cup. Since returning to Madison, Pankowski has scored six goals in just four games and given the Badgers a much-needed offensive spark.
“I was in a little slump at the beginning of the year and I think that going to play with the national team kinda shook me out of it a little bit,” Pankowski said. “I came back with a fresh mindset, and being able to play back with [Emily] Clark and Sam [Cogan] made it a little bit more exciting and a little newer.”
Even for players performing at a high level, a few games with a national team provide valuable experience that can be transferred into play at the collegiate level and potentially beyond.
“I think definitely playing [at the international level] with those players who think the game a little bit different, you can learn a lot from them,” said junior forward Emily Clark, who, along with senior goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens, will join the Canadian National Team for a two-game series in December.
Having players miss time to join their national teams is still a challenge for collegiate squads, especially a team like Wisconsin that fields numerous top players from the U.S. and Canada. Thus far, the Badgers have been lucky enough to be at full strength for their most important series against Clarkson and Minnesota-Duluth, as well as their upcoming series with No. 2 Minnesota. But what some might see as a disadvantage, the Badger players regard as a chance to grow as a team.
“I think other people have to step up, sometimes the lines get jumbled up,” said senior forward Sydney McKibbon. “I know we’re gonna be missing some players later on in the year when we go to Lindenwood, so it’s an opportunity for the other players who are there to step up and have a chance to play.”
