Oct. 19, 2007

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WARRIORS HOST HOME OPENER: After a week off, the Wayne State University women's hockey team welcomes Union College for its home-opening series at City Ice Arena. The last meeting between the two schools was Jan 3. 2004 with WSU skating to a 5-2 victory. The Warriors are a perfect 4-0-0 all-time against the Dutchwomen but are only 2-5 in home opening games. WSU enters the series with a 0-2 record, returns 18 letterwinners with three newcomers and looks to improve on last season's 15-18-1 overall record and 6-6-0 second place College Hockey America (CHA) finish. Head coach Jim Fetter is in his fifth year at the helm of the Warriors with a 57-66-13 record.

SCOUTING THE DUTCHWOMEN: Union enters this weekend series with a 0-4 record. However, the Dutchwomen have played some tough competition falling to #1 Wisconsin, 5-0 and 11-0 (Sept. 28-29) and Vermont, 4-0, 4-1 (Oct. 12-13). Freshman Courtney Kerslake leads the team offensively having scored the Dutchwomen's lone goal of the season. Union is under the direction of head coach Claudia Asano who is in her first season.

RINK REWIND: The last time out, Wayne State could not mount any offense and had problems stopping Clarkson's high powered offense as the Warriors were outscored 14-1 in two games dropping 7-1 and 7-0 decisions at Cheel Arena (Oct. 5-6). For the series, WSU only had 31 total shots while going 0-for-10 with a man advantage. The Golden Knights tallied 14 goals on 84 total shots going 6-for-11 on the power-play. The lone bright spot for WSU was sophomore Katrina Protopapas (Chatham, Ont./Bluewater Hawks) who cashed in with her first goal of the season off a wrap-around attempt by senior Ashley King (Winnipeg, Man./River East Lightning). Senior goalie Valery Turcotte (Jonquiere, Quebec/Royal Metabetchouan) made 58 total saves (33 game 1, 25 game 2) facing a staggering 68 total shots between the pipes.

WSU PICKED SECOND IN CHA PRESEASON POLL: Defending 2006-07 regular season and tournament champion Mercyhurst College was voted by the College Hockey America (CHA) league coaches as the preseason favorite to repeat as conference champion for the upcoming 2007-08 campaign. The Lakers received three first-place votes with nine overall points. Wayne State received one first-place vote with seven points. Niagara came in third with five points while Robert Morris rounded out the group with three points.

BOAL NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-CHA TEAM: Wayne State junior forward Melissa Boal (Pakenham, Ont./Ottawa Raiders) was named to the Preseason All-CHA Team. Last season, Boal was a First Team All-CHA selection ranking seventh nationwide in goals per game (0.82), ninth in power-play goals (11) and 16th in points per game (1.32) in 34 games played for the Warriors. She also ranked second in conference goals (28), short-handed goals (2), third in power-play goals (11), fourth in points (45) and game-winning goals (3) and fifth in power-play points (22).

COMMISSIONER'S CUP: Friday's game between WSU and UC is part of the 2007-08 Commissioners' Cup. For the second straight year, the commissioners of the four NCAA Division I women's ice hockey conferences are sponsoring a competition for the Women's Commissioners' Cup. A total of 30 different programs will participate in the 20-game schedule that opened up with two games on Saturday, October 13: Minnesota State (WCHA) at Connecticut (Hockey East) and North Dakota (WCHA) at Rensselaer (ECAC). Last year's inaugural competition was captured by the WCHA.

MEET THE CAPTAINS: Fetter has named senior Ashley King (Winnipeg, Manitoba/River East Lightning) as team captain for the upcoming season. Juniors Amanda Hungle (Regina, Saskatchewan/Regina Wild) and Lindsay DiPietro (Manotick, Ont./Ottawa Lady Senators) along with sophomore Christine Jefferson (Nepean, Ont./Merivale) were selected as assistant captains. This will be the third consecutive year King has been a captain for the Warriors. She was an assistant captain as a sophomore and a co-captain last year with Laura Monk, the lone senior on the squad. King played in all 34 games a year ago, and has missed just one game in her collegiate career. She was selected as a National Academic Scholar by the American Women's Hockey Coaches Association (AWHCA) and has earned WSU Athletic Director's Honor Roll (term gpa 3.5+) accolades every semester. Hungle has appeared in 65 games and set a career-high in goals this past season. This will be the second year she has served as an assistant captain. DiPietro will be wearing an "A" for the first time in her collegiate career. Last season she earned CHA Academic All-League honors and led the squad in assists (30) as a sophomore. Jefferson earned WSU's Most Improved Player award following her freshman campaign in which she played in all 34 games scoring nine points offensively and was selected to the CHA All-Tournament team.