Wisconsin Women's Hockey 2023-2024

[robertearle]

As we bid farewell to seven Badgers and celebrate the graduation of nine Badgers (some not yet leaving), with the release of the conference portion of the 2023-2024 schedule, we turn an eye towards the coming new season, when we will welcome in six incoming freshmen, along with one transfer.


The schedule, so far:

Mankato Oct 13-15
Bemidji Oct 20-22
@ St Thomas Oct 27-28
@ St Cloud Nov 3-4
(open, for now) Nov 10-12
@ Ohio St Nov 17-18
(open, for now) Nov 24-26
Duluth Dec 1-3
@ Minnesota Dec 8-9
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St Thomas Jan 12-14
@ Mankato Jan 19-20
@ Duluth Jan 26-27
St Cloud Feb 2-4
@ Bemidji Feb 9-10
Minn Feb 16-18
Ohio State Feb 23-25
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WCHA first round March 1-3
WCHA Finals March 8-9
NCAA regionals March 14-17
NCAA Frozen Four March 22, 24



The incoming freshmen:

Forwards:
Kelly Gorbatenko (Barrington, Illinois)
Cassie Hall (South Lyon, Michigan)
Bella Vasseur (Oregon, Wisconsin)

Defenders:
Ava Murphy (Kitchener, Ontario) and
Laney Potter (Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania)

And goalie Ava McNaughton (Seven Fields, Pennsylvania)

Gorbatenko, Hall, Murphy, Potter, and McNaughton all played at LaBahn last summer in the U19 World Championships.

In addition, defender Anna Wilgren (Hudson, WI) tranfers in from MS-Mankato


The 'farewells':

Jesse Compher - 2023 national champion
Grace Shirley - two time national champion
Mayson Toft - two time national champion
Nicole LaMantia
Cami Kronish
Sophie Shirley
Natalie Buchbinder

the last four all - amazingly - three time national champions.

(Prior to 2023, there had been a total of five three-time winners for UW.)

On that subject, the list of returning players with multiple championships who can add to their totals:

Britta Curl - three for three so far

Chayla Edwards - two championships, one year of eligibility remaining.

two championships, two years eligibility used (I think):
Lacey Eden
Katie Kotlowski
Jane Gervais
Maddie Wheeler
Casey O'Brien


Lastly, with a link to some really wonderful graduation photos (even though the ceremony hadn't happened yet), the graduates:

Jesse Compher
Katie Kotlowski
Nicole LaMantia
Jane Gervais
Cami Kronish
Chayla Edwards
Sophie Shirley
Natalie Buchbinder
Grace Shirley

The photos, via Compher's instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr9ijcqujQ0/


(Whew, that was a lot to keep track of. Tell me if I have anything wrong in there)

[Timothy A]

Why must UW always finish the season against one of the 2 the evil empires? Or in this case, back to back!?!? Why not a cupcake and a brownie instead? Of course the beginning of the season is a cupcake bar, but they will have some N/C's before then, maybe not so sugary?

[Timothy A]

Gervias and Kotlowski are in some of those graduation pictures. And then those 2 and CE are not in the final one.

Gervias is listed as RS So. Did she complete her Bachelors in 3 years?

[robertearle]

Gervias and Kotlowski are in some of those graduation pictures. And then those 2 and CE are not in the final one.

Gervias is listed as RS So. Did she complete her Bachelors in 3 years?

Don't know. Who's in what photos could be nothing more than a couple people arriving late, and the photographer being anxious to get going. I know with those visual and that background, I'd have been snapping away from the minute the first of them arrived.

Three years isn't that big a deal if you come in with some 'advanced credits' out of high school and then some classes during summers. I had essentially a semester's worth of credits done coming out of high school.

(There are quite likely other photos and maybe combinations at the instagram accounts of the others. The others' accounts are 'tagged' in the first group shot; if you click on it, the tags appear and if you then click on one of the tags, that person's page will open. Although some of those photos were in instagram 'stories' that aren't permanent posts, and disappear after 24 hours, etc. Kronish's account has some.)

[Gargoyle]

Jane's linked in account shows her projected graduation as 2024, but maybe she had an accelerated program in the School of Business. And, she's an excellent student:
https://uwbadgers.com/news/2023/2/15...ecipients.aspx

[Timothy A]

CE is coming back! Wow. We've got a Calamity Jane situation in the D Corps.

[robertearle]

CE is coming back! Wow. We've got a Calamity Jane situation in the D Corps.

You beat me to it. Great news!

The 'introduction' post has been edited (and also includes Anna Wilgren, who I forgot initially.)

[Timothy A]

You beat me to it. Great news!

The 'introduction' post has been edited (and also includes Anna Wilgren, who I forgot initially.)

You had an inkling she was coming back and you were right. I can't recall UW's D corps being this deep evah. It's ridiculous. They won't even need to use a goalie. I just can't think that Potter and Murphy are going to sit a year.

[Reddington]

Just saying some of those players were at Wisconsin for 7 yrs. That is ridiculous anyway you slice it. The guy that said don't tell me Calamity Jane found a 8 th year for another player wasn't that far off.

Congrats though.

[robertearle]

Just saying some of those players were at Wisconsin for 7 yrs. That is ridiculous anyway you slice it. The guy that said don't tell me Calamity Jane found a 8 th year for another player wasn't that far off.

Congrats though.

Nobody has been there, or will have been there, for seven years. The 2023-2024 season will be the sixth for Britta Curl with 2018-2019 having been her first. But of course there was the COVID year, and then Curl wasn't "there" for the 2021-22 year when she was centralized with the national/Olympic team.

Similarly, Natalie Buchbinder just finished the sixth season, with her first having been the 2017-2018 season, Likewise, she wasn't "there" for the 2021-22 season, also having been centralized.

But that's as "ridiculous" as it has been. (We'll see whether Lacey Eden pushes the limit as things move forward.)

[robertearle]

You had an inkling she was coming back and you were right. I can't recall UW's D corps being this deep evah. It's ridiculous. They won't even need to use a goalie. I just can't think that Potter and Murphy are going to sit a year.

The local "inside info" poster had said Chayla was coming back. I just gave him/her the benefit of doubt, so to speak.

[Steamboat]

Just saying some of those players were at Wisconsin for 7 yrs. That is ridiculous anyway you slice it. The guy that said don't tell me Calamity Jane found a 8 th year for another player wasn't that far off.

Congrats though.

Check out some of Timothy's whining about Amanda Kessel. I laugh just thinking about it.

[robertearle]

Check out some of Timothy's whining about Amanda Kessel. I laugh just thinking about it.

It was Kessel's "journey" that taught me how players who are centralized don't have that year counted against their 'five year clock'. Like Buchbinder has just done and Curl is about to do, Kessel had a six calendar year period during which she used her four years of eligibility. (Each of the three had one year centralized; Curl and Buchbinder had a COVID year, Kessel had a medical hardship year.)

-----------------------------------------------

There was a volleyball player named Kayla Caffey who actually did put in seven years. She started at Missouri when she took a redshirt year, then played a year. Then she was injured and took a medical hardship year, shortly after the NCAA had changed the rules to allow for a "sixth year" possibility in a case like hers - redshirt followed by medical hardship. Then she played a second year at Missouri before using her one-time undergrad transfer to move to Nebraska, where she played two years, but with one of them being a COVID year. Finally she used her grad transfer to move to Texas, where she played on the 2022 national championship team. Seven calendar years.

Missouri Year 1) redshirt; Year 2) normal; Year 3) medical hardship; Year 4) normal; undergrad transfer to Nebraska for Year 5) COVID half-season played; Year 6) normal; grad transfer to Texas for Year 7) normal (national championship)

I learned a lot about the whole process figuring out just how she had managed to get that seventh year. :-)

[Steamboat]

I learned a lot about the whole process figuring out just how she had managed to get that seventh year. :-)

That is some dedicated research! Time spent on this forum is never wasted.

[robertearle]

That is some dedicated research! Time spent on this forum is never wasted.

It was a pretty thoroughly hashed over topic on the college volleyball equivalent of this forum.