Nicole Robinson

The UW-Eau Claire women’s hockey team will have big skates to fill when they step onto the ice this season: its own.

The Blugolds enter the 2005-06 season with high hopes coming off of the 2004-05 season. Last season was the first winning season the team had compiled a winning record, finishing 15-9-1 overall.

It also marked the first-ever Northern Collegiate Hockey Association post-season win in a tournament game for the Blugolds when they defeated UW-Superior 5-1 in the third place game.

“Last year was a phenomenal year considering I’ve been here since year one when we had two or three wins. We’ve come a long way,” coach Mike Collins said.

Collins hopes to take last season and keep the momentum and winning alive this season with the help of 15 returning players, including senior captains Amanda Schultz and Crystal Wasem.

“As a coach your goal is that you continue to improve every year, although every year it gets tougher,” Collins said. “It’s easy going from four wins to six to eight; improving on fifteen gets more difficult. The feeling the players had, the goals they achieved, that momentum will help us to improve this year.”

Schultz agreed the team will have to use its momentum from previous years to fuel its upcoming season.

“(Last season) was motivation more than anything,” Schultz said. “We know what it’s like to win, most of us know what it’s like not to win, and I think that will push us to win.”

Joining Schultz and Wasem in the leadership position is assistant captain, junior Laura Suppes. This year’s roster includes five new freshman, five sophomores, six juniors and four seniors including Schultz and Wasem.

Both coach and players said their focus for the year is not on the competition, but on their own team and the abilities they have.

“I’m focusing on what our team can accomplish as a whole, all 21 players are going to contribute something,” Wasem said. “It’s going be everyone that’s going to get us where we’re going to go.”

With their winning record, the Blugolds have more of a competitive edge in the conference this year over past years. Last year they beat UW-River Falls, another first for the team, and also beat UW-Superior for the first time in three years.

“Last year we brought attention to ourselves because we were more competitive,” Collins said. “I don’t think anyone’s going show up in Eau Claire and think they get an automatic two points. They realize we are going to compete for sixty minutes, and any time you do that you give yourselves the chance to win.”

With the start of the season coming quickly, the Blugolds are focusing not on the season as a whole, but on a game-by-game basis.

“Last year’s finish, it is what it is,” Collins said. “This year is a new year, we’ve proven nothing yet and we have to start all over. … I like our team, our chances, because we should be winning more, and I think we will.”

Schultz agreed and said while looking at the season as one game at a time, they have to focus on their first opponent.

“Right now we’re focusing on Bethel (College),” she said. “We know they’ve improved, so we’ve worked on our personal skills, our team skills, then we’ll look at the next game and go from there.”

No matter who the competition is, Eau Claire plans on giving them a taste of what a winning team looks and plays like.

“It’s my senior year so I just want to make sure we give it our all. I don’t want to leave anything behind,” Wasem said. “Go big or go home.”