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Yale Bulldogs 2023-24

B

BowWowWow

Member
Yale returns ~23 players this coming season, and the outlook is good.

Graduating in May are Vanstone (unfortunately injured in 2022-23), Rippon, Zander; team leaders Dalton, Welch, Seitz; and probably DeNaut in goal, though she didn't get four years to play. Generally, the Yale players took the 2020-21 year off from school, during the Ivies' canceled season.

The rising seniors are Hartje, top assist-per-game-maker in the country for 2022-23; Goode, who's been playing more; and Lee, who has 7 career game-winning goals. Other significant players include Dukaric of course (finalist for several awards), Muhn, DiAntonio, J Ray, and Bargman.

For 2023-24, reported recruits on the eliteprospects and collegecommitments sites include Suzy Higuchi (F, Blake School), Mariya Rauf (F, Oakville Hornets), Isabella Paolucci (D, Belle Tire, MI), and Avery Muhn (D, Burlington Barracudas). A few players are apparently on the horizon for the season after that, including a goalie.
 
A breath of fresh air, and from New Haven, no less! Glad to have some company, unless you just smell blood in the water. In any case, your team has been a lot more fun to watch than mine. ARM can tell us when the last honest to God team thread made its debut here.
 
Thanks! I look forward to a good give and take with you all on here too.

One of the comments from the Yale coach after the 2022 frozen four was "We're a little bit new to this. But not only did we show up, we made some noise." Here's, then, a new thread about doing that.
 
thirdtime's . . . said:
ARM can tell us when the last honest to God team thread made its debut here.
Click to expand...
Do you mean for anyone, or for Yale? For the latter, I think that there were some Yale fans posting earlier in the Hilary Witt days. Bach then, Princeton, Brown, and especially Dartmouth all had forum regulars.
 
ARM said:
Do you mean for anyone, or for Yale? For the latter, I think that there were some Yale fans posting earlier in the Hilary Witt days. Bach then, Princeton, Brown, and especially Dartmouth all had forum regulars.
Click to expand...

Yes, I remember Dartmouth and their wonderfully loopy poster, and I think Cornell too (?), when I was first hooked, but I don’t go back as far as Princeton and Brown. Maybe Yale will poke the Tiger. It would be a sign from the hockey gods themselves if Brown returned.
 
Hilary Witt days must be back a ways. I've read that Yale WIH had its first USA Olympian then: Helen Resor.

Poking the Tiger -- would that be like a Facebook "poke"?
 
Congrats, Claire Dalton and Emma Seitz - who each won an award for senior student-athletes at Yale.

Dalton is the Molly Meyer Humanitarian Award female sport winner, awarded for "selfless devotion along with compassion and concern for their team and the community at Yale and beyond." Seitz is the Ford Award female sport co-winner, awarded for "commitment to strengthening the relationship between Yale Athletics and the youth in the New Haven community." https://yalebulldogs.com/news/2023/...-named-2022-23-molly-meyer-award-winners.aspx https://yalebulldogs.com/news/2023/...wu-named-2022-23-yale-ford-award-winners.aspx

Great work!!
 
Here is some info on a couple recent Bulldog alumnae, who are defenders and who have been playing after graduation.

Tabea Botthof graduated from Yale in December 2022, playing her last game in December vs. Union. She has been playing in Sweden for the team SDE HF in the top league there, and she played for Germany in the 2023 IIHF Women's Worlds this month. This story narrates how she and her teammate Anne Bartsch surprised their team with an aerial mobile made of pictures of the players with their strengths. That was before the first game in the tourney. She says that they got a new assistant coach, who asked who their three leaders were. They had to explain that -- despite there being a captain and assistant captains -- oh, that's all of us. (The story is also about the Czech team.) Botthof notched an assist on an empty-net goal in the tournament.

Wonderfully, in her last game for Yale, she scored 11 seconds in, soon after the PA announcer said, following the lineups, that she was graduating; it was assisted by Hartje. Ten minutes later Botthof assisted on an Olivia Muhn goal. Botthof also scored in the NCAA game against the Ohio State in 2022.

Saroya Tinker graduated in May 2020. She has played for three seasons in the PHF. Here is a story about her and Mikyla Grant-Mentis, two Black women in the PHF all-star showcase. In recent years, she became involved with Black Girl Hockey Club and started the organization Black Girl Hockey Club Canada, as well as working for representation and advocating generally. In her last Yale game, a playoff at Harvard on the brink of the pandemic, she had an assist on the game-tying goal, put in by Dalton.

Tinker is currently a finalist for a Willie O'Ree Community Hero award -- one of 3 Canadians on the list.

Finally, one more Bulldog defender, Sofie Zander from Bara, Sweden, also had a point in her last game in which she played as a Bulldog this February. She scored in a home win over Harvard, recording a 100% shot percentage on the season, on senior day. She took a photo with her longtime Kent School teammate Kiersten Goode, a forward who's a rising senior.

edit: Black Girl Hockey Club, rather than "Girls"
 
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Here is a story in The Athletic about Bulldog alumna Emma Vlasic and her brothers. The story covers her experience playing in the PHF, as well as covering her younger brother Alex Vlasic's time with BU and his experience with the NHL draft. They said that they trained a lot together early in Covid.

She said that she was unsure whether she would play in the PHF this coming year because the time commitments are changing. She has another full-time job schedule in addition to hockey. It sounds like she has been one of her brother's great motivators.
 
On the web, I looked into whether certain further recruits are going to be Bulldogs. Deanna Buenzow (D, Phillips Andover) and Julia Simon (F, Noble & Greenough, Phillips Andover) have appeared to be headed to Yale for the fall. The East Coast Wizards list them with Yale for 2023; Simon originally for 2022, and she must be in a postgrad year.

(There may or may not be another forward also looking to attend Yale based on online listings.)

Simon and Buenzow made it onto the score sheet in Phillips Andover's finals loss to undefeated Williston this March.
 
Congratulations to the seniors graduating in just over a week on 5/22!

How cool that DeNaut joined varsity lacrosse as a goalie. The team hugged Vanstone in a seat on the ice on Senior Day, with her injury.

Yale hasn’t released their non-conference schedule for 2023-24, and I think that only UMD and Assumption University have. We probably have visits upcoming to Penn State and Mercyhurst.

Hartje was elected captain for 2023-24. In the article about this, she cited the past couple captains as role models. Both she and rising sophomore Boucher, along with each of their recent linemates (who are many various players in the case of Boucher), are increasingly dominant at faceoffs.

Anyone have other thoughts on the Yale squad?
 
Just read the article on Hartje taking over as captain. I don't think you will find many forwards (any?) ever leading a team in points, +/- AND blocked shots. That's pretty dominant.

The outgoing senior class with Welch, Dalton and Seitz will leave a void to be filled, for sure. Not sure why Welch didn't get more love over the years, but she was maybe eclipsed by the other two.

As for thoughts on the future of the Yale squad, I think the culture is one of hard work and winning. As you mention, both Boucher and Hartje were top of the ECAC in face-off percentage, and Boucher will likely step in and step up to fill that void left by the outgoing class. I think the future remains bright.

Just read the article on Hartje being elected captain for next season. I don't think you will find many forwards (if any?) ever leading a team in points, +/- AND blocked shots.

And Dukaric will be back to see if she can repeat her historic season. The pieces seem to be in place, although the Ivies will never be competing on equal footing with the inability to get any transfers, let alone grad transfers. It will always be an uphill battle with recruiting.
 
Agreed about Welch; I thought that she was key in many games. That trio of players will be difficult to make up for. Agreed about Boucher taking on some of that role, as well.

Hartje's COVID year playing in Slovakia may have helped her keep developing her play. A force on the ice. I'm glad that you are optimistic about the future too.
 
From the ECAC and other teams’ schedules, this is what I could find on the Yale women’s ice hockey 2023–24 season so far.

(blue: home)
scrimmage Brown & Princeton Sat Sept 30
exhibition vs a Canadian team? Oct
at Princeton Fri Oct 20 6PM
at Quinnipiac Sat Oct 21 3PM
vs Harvard Fri Oct 27 6PM
vs Dartmouth Sat Oct 28 3PM
at Cornell Fri Nov 3 6PM
at Colgate Sat Nov 4 3PM
vs Union Fri Nov 10 6PM
vs RPI Sat Nov 11 3PM
at St. Lawrence Fri Nov 17 6PM
at Clarkson Sat Nov 18 3PM
non-conference games? Nov 21–26
at Brown Sat Dec 2
vs Brown Sun Dec 3
at Penn State Fri Dec 8
at Penn State Sat Dec 9
at Mercyhurst Fri Jan 5 3PM
at Mercyhurst Sat Jan 6 2PM
non-conference game? Jan 9–13
vs Clarkson Fri Jan 19 6PM
vs St. Lawrence Sat Jan 20 3PM
vs Quinnipiac Fri Jan 26 6PM
vs Princeton Sat Jan 27 3PM
at RPI Fri Feb 2 6PM
at Union Sat Feb 3 3PM
at Dartmouth Fri Feb 9 6PM
at Harvard Sat Feb 10 3PM
vs Colgate Fri Feb 16 6PM
vs Cornell Sat Feb 17 3PM

In late November we are hosting the Nutmeg tournament, per the Sacred Heart site.

With recruits, it seems that Yale has these incoming student-athletes for 2023–24: Deanna Buenzow (D, Philips Andover), Suzy Higuchi (F, Blake School), Avery Muhn (D, Burlington Barracudas), Mariya Rauf (F, Oakville Hornets), Julia Simon (F, Philips Andover), and Stephanie Stainton (F, Oakville Hornets).
Players who seem to be for 2024–25: Naomi Baechler (G, Nepean Wildcats), Emma McGowan (F, Berkshire School), and Isabella Paolucci (D, Belle Tire).
For 2025–26: Hannah Weyerhaeuser (F, Buckingham Browne & Nichols).
 
Here is an addition re: the schedule. For our home non-conference game, Northeastern announced it is coming to Yale Tue Jan 2.
 
Here is an overall schedule update based on an announcement by the team on their site:

(blue: home)
scrimmage Brown & Princeton Sat Sept 30
exhibition vs McGill Sat Oct 7
at Princeton Fri Oct 20 6PM
at Quinnipiac Sat Oct 21 3PM
vs Harvard Fri Oct 27 6PM -home opener
vs Dartmouth Sat Oct 28 3PM
at Cornell Fri Nov 3 6PM
at Colgate Sat Nov 4 3PM
vs Union Fri Nov 10 6PM
vs RPI Sat Nov 11 3PM
at St. Lawrence Fri Nov 17 6PM
at Clarkson Sat Nov 18 3PM
vs Sacred Heart Fri Nov 24 3PM -Nutmeg
vs UConn/Quinnipiac Sat Nov 25 3/6PM -Nutmeg
at Brown Sat Dec 2
vs Brown Sun Dec 3
at Penn State Fri Dec 8
at Penn State Sat Dec 9
vs Northeastern Tue Jan 2
at Mercyhurst Fri Jan 5 3PM
at Mercyhurst Sat Jan 6 2PM
vs Clarkson Fri Jan 19 6PM
vs St. Lawrence Sat Jan 20 3PM
vs Quinnipiac Fri Jan 26 6PM
vs Princeton Sat Jan 27 3PM
at RPI Fri Feb 2 6PM
at Union Sat Feb 3 3PM
at Dartmouth Fri Feb 9 6PM
at Harvard Sat Feb 10 3PM
vs Colgate Fri Feb 16 6PM
vs Cornell Sat Feb 17 3PM
 
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