Freshman Class is a Chu-in to Contribute

The Harvard women’s hockey team may be stacked with talent with three Olympians and all but two players returned from last year’s team that finished No. 9 in the nation. But the Crimson will need its versatile freshmen to play to their full potential in order to win a national championship in a sport that grows in its competitveness every season.

“We’ve got 19 kids who can go at any point,” said Harvard coach Katey Stone. “For a freshman to come in and play right away, it’s more significant than it was four years ago. They’ve got to be that much better.”

The class of 2006 seems to have proven Stone right, scoring four of the twelve goals in the team’s scrimmage against the Pacific Steelers last week. And three of those goals were scored by none other than Olympic silver medalist forward Julie “Chewy” Chu.

Chu graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 2001, but took a year off from her studies to train with the U.S. Olympic Team. Though she considered herself a long-shot to make it to Salt Lake City, Chu excelled during the tryouts and proved herself.

“The first cut that we made in August was the toughest one because I personally didn’t think I played that well,” Chu said. “But by the time the last cut came [on Dec. 17th], I was a lot more confident that I had a good chance to make the team.”

Chu represented her nation well at the Olympics, scoring against Germany and China. Though Chu was disappointed in the United States’ performance in the gold medal game against Canada, she was satisfied with the overall outcome.

“The big picture was that we were in the Olympics and we were representing our country, and we won an Olympic medal, regardless of the color,” Chu said. “The initial ‘God, we really lost’ [reaction] goes away really quickly as you’re standing in line and seeing your teammates getting their silver medals around their necks.”

But now that her Olympic days are behind her for the next few years, Chu hopes that her impressive footwork and incredible vision of the ice will help propel Harvard to further success this season.

“I just want to come and participate with the team,” Chu said. “It’s all just being there and being a solid unit.”

Though the most well known member of the freshman class may be the Olympian, even not counting Chu, the class still remains one of the most talented to date.

“I think a lot of our freshmen are going to play a lot of hockey,” Stone said. “They’re just trying to fit in right now.”

Vermont native Carrie Schroyer, a resilient player whose speed on the ice rivals most of her teammates’, is just one of the players Stone hopes sees a lot of ice time. Schroyer, a cross-country star who set the 5K record at her high school, feels that her endurance adds to her strength as a hockey player.

Jaclyn “Tush” Pitushka, was first made a defender when she arrived at Harvard. But once this skilled slash player proved her goal scoring talent, she was quickly moved up to the front line.

A native of British Columbia, Pitushka won a provincial title in every age group except intermediates, and is an internationally-ranked tennis player. Pitushka’s love for hockey was enhanced by tennis, which also drastically improved her hand-eye coordination.

“I have fun. I mean that’s basically why I started playing, and now it’s something I live off of,” Pitushka said.

Fellow British Colombian Jennifer Raimondi also hopes to score often this year, despite being over three years younger than fellow freshman Chu.

Raimondi, the leading scorer for the Steelers last season, proved to the Crimson coaches her renowned ability to find the net, providing an assist against her former team in the scrimmage. Raimondi hopes that the skills she acquired as a member of the under-18 squad will translate to the college game.

Though a large portion of the Crimson talent lies in the forwards, the defense hopes its own outstanding stars will get out on the ice a lot.

“Two defensemen are going to play a lot of hockey, [Jennifer] Skinner and [Abra] Kinkopf,” Stone said.

Though a native of Canada, Skinner attended boarding school in the U.S., where she co-captained the school’s hockey team with twin sister Andrea, who now plays at Cornell. But Jennifer notes that she has no ill will to her now rival sister.

“We’ll say ‘hi’ to each other on the ice, but it’ll just be a game just like anything else,” Jennifer said. “It stays on the ice.”

Skinner is known as a hard working, dominating force in the rink. Skinner played on a boys’ team her first three years in the sport before she was able to join an all-girls team

Kinkopf also has a family history of hockey in the Ivy League. Her older brother, Abraham, is a sophomore on the Harvard men’s team.

The lone goaltender in the freshman class is Ali Boe. Selected as her high school’s female athlete of the year, Boe excelled in soccer, golf and hockey. But standing at only 5’5, Boe finds that she has to compensate for her lack of size with other areas of her game.

“Because I am a little smaller I do need to be quicker to keep up and cover more of the net,” Boe said.

Though this group of freshmen all feel they have unique backgrounds and outlooks, hockey has brought them and the upperclassmen together to form a great off-ice chemistry that has already translated inside the rink.

“I think we’re ranked No. 3 not because we have three Olympians, but because there’s 23 or 24 solid players on the team who can pick up the slack for anyone who’s having a rough day,” Chu said.