HOCKEY PREVIEW 2006-07: Olympic Homecoming

Last season, the Harvard’s women’s hockey team won the ECAC title and clinched an NCAA Tournament berth despite having lost three players to the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy.

This year, the trio of co-captain Julie Chu, Caitlin Cahow, and Sarah Vaillancourt has returned to Cambridge with international experience and hardware in tow.

Chu and Cahow, a junior, helped the United States win a bronze medal this past winter, while sophomore Vaillancourt played for the Canadian national team that took home the gold.

Their success abroad makes the bolstered Crimson roster among the best, at least on paper, in the nation. But it will still have to prove this on the ice.

Fresh from their exploits of last winter and more than a year removed from the scholastic life, Harvard’s trio may find the return home to be a challenge.

“I think it’s a very individual thing,” Crimson coach Katey Stone says. “Some transition better than others, both academically and athletically.”

THE VETERAN

Although Julie Chu is listed as a forward and defender on Harvard’s roster, perhaps the title “assistant coach” should appear next to her name as well.

“[Having Julie is] just like having another coach on the ice because she knows the game so well, she articulates the game so well,” Stone says. “She’s like the grandma out there. It’s great.”

Chu, while not quite grandmotherly at twenty-four years of age, is one of the senior members of the Harvard team. She has been a part of the United States national team since 2000, and has played in two Olympics, bringing home silver in 2002 and bronze in 2006.

Her experience and leadership skills are appreciated by her coaches and teammates alike and have made her an important factor in keeping the women’s hockey team a cohesive unit.

“I look up to her so much,” Vaillancourt says. “She’s an unbelievable person and an unbelievable player. She’s just such a great captain.”

Chu is by no means limited to being a practice and locker room motivator. She leads by example, and is a stellar performer on the ice.

Chu burst on to the collegiate scene in 2002, finishing second in the nation in scoring with 93 points during her freshman year. She was the ECAC and Ivy League Rookie of the Year as well as a first team All-ECAC and All-Ivy selection.

She has continued to be an impressive force throughout her college tenure. Chu now stands sixth on Harvard’s total points list with 218.

During the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002, she netted two goals and two assists. Chu added to her Olympics points total with two more assists in Torino.

Having been to three national championship games without tasting victory, Chu would finish her collegiate career on a high note with a title this season.

“This is my last time so I want to make the most of it,” she says. “I want to try to put away some goals but also set up some plays and be more of a complete player.”

THE GRINDER

Of the many roads that one can take to become an Olympian, the road of pure grit and dogged determination is often the bumpiest. Just ask Caitlin Cahow.

While making her name in the Ivy League as a hard-nosed defenseman, Cahow remained relatively anonymous at the national level until 2005.

That year, Cahow completed an outstanding sophomore season, ranking third in the nation in scoring by a defenseman with 35 points. Her performance earned her Harvard’s Joe Bertagna Award as the Most Improved Player.

Apparently, Harvard wasn’t the only team that noticed Cahow’s improvement. That same year, the United States national team came knocking on her door.

In the following months, Cahow battled through the national team’s grueling tryout process.

“It was a long grind,” she says. “It was really tough.”

With no prior national team experience, and a slew of other seasoned vets vying for spots on the Olympic roster, Cahow seemed an unlikely candidate to make the final cut.But when the original forty-woman roster dwindled down to twenty, Cahow remained among the chosen to go to Torino.

“It was a bit of a surprise for me,” she says. “It’s a huge honor and a huge thrill to represent your team like that.”

Cahow’s transition to the Olympic level was made easier by the guidance of former Crimson stars Angela Ruggiero ’02-’04 and Jaime Hagerman ’03 as well as Cahow’s current Harvard teammate, Chu.

“Caitlin did an incredible job,” Chu says. “She’s been a real asset on the national team and on this Harvard team.”

With her return to the Crimson, Cahow brings a strong defensive presence and her intense work ethic. Never satisfied, she will continue to try to better her game.

“I’m just looking to improve every day,” she says.

THE PHENOM

While Sarah Vaillancourt is far removed from her native Sherbrooke, Que., she has been right at home at Harvard since being dubbed “Frenchie” on her official visit to the school.

“I wasn’t on the team and I already had a nickname,” she says.

A highly touted recruit out of the Pomfret School, Vaillancourt has lived up to expectations.

In the 2004 season, Vaillancourt’s rookie campaign, she scored 67 points, good for third on the Crimson and enough to earn her the ECAC and Ivy League Rookie of the Year awards.

This performance helped her land a spot on Team Canada. Vaillancourt responded by dominating in her first international game with six points against Kazakhstan, tying a Canadian team record.

Vaillaincourt continued to shine in the global spotlight, helping Canada win a gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino.

“It was great to represent Canada,” she says. “It was a dream that I’ve had since I was twelve. When we won and they raised our flag and played our national anthem, it was unbelievable.”

The Olympic challenge was a formidable one for Vaillancourt.

“I have a lot of experience hockey-wise and life-wise,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot about myself and what it takes to win.”

Vaillancourt’s exposure to the world’s highest level of play has also added to her already outstanding array of hockey skills.

“She’s so good it’s scary,” Stone says. “She sees the game three, five, seven steps ahead of everybody else.”

This bodes well for the Crimson’s title aspirations. The most frightening part for the Crimson’s opponents is that Vaillancourt is still improving.

“I haven’t reached my potential,” she says.

How that potential will pan out is difficult to tell, but when asked if Vaillancourt could be one of the all-time greats in Harvard history, Stone provides a window to her thoughts on the subject.

“Oh yeah. Easy.”