Team USA may have dominated the overall medal count at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but losses to Canada during both the men's and women's ice hockey gold medal games left a bad taste in the mouth of more than one American puckhead. Thankfully, the Virginia Women's Hockey Club did its part to ease the sting of Hockey Canada's gold medal haul by winning its second straight Delaware Valley Hockey League Championship. The road to the trophy, however, was anything but easy. After a disappointing 1-7 start to the season, the team regrouped during Winter Break and won six of its final seven games to complete a remarkable run to the title.
Founded in 2000, the Virginia Women's Hockey Club competes in the Delaware Valley Hockey League against fellow collegiate club teams like Delaware, Maryland and the University of Pennsylvania. With just 16 players, the team keeps a relatively low profile on Grounds - even compared to other club sports at Virginia - in part because much of the pseudo-recruitment for club hockey players occurs at end-of-season high school all-star games.
Even attracting players through traditional means has been a struggle for the team. A booth at the activities fair received little attention, even though the team doesn't require a try-out before joining, as many club sports do.
"I feel like we're out there enough where people know, but at the same time people are like, 'We have girl's hockey here?'" freshman forward Kerry Kelley said.
The team features a group of players with a range of personalities and experience in playing organized hockey, but these disparities have only helped the players find their individual niches and allowed the team to mesh into a close-knit unit.
"All of my best friends are on the team," sophomore forward Nancy Norman said. "I didn't rush because with hockey I didn't feel like I needed that sorority feeling. We only have practices Wednesday nights and have games on Saturdays and Sundays, but we all go out together, a lot of us live around the same area so we can eat dinner a lot together, it's just a really tight group."
The team struggled early on in the season, likely because of the departure veteran leadership and the heightened pressure and expectations after winning the championship the previous year.
The 1-7 start - which included a 9-0 shutout loss to Liberty - was a shock to the system after the sustained success of the 2009 campaign.
Initially, "it seemed like there was some kind of not necessarily hostility but tension," Kelley said. Winter Break and the fading playoff picture, however, prompted a rapid change of pace and saw the team win three of its last four regular season games, including a 9-2 demolishing of Maryland.
"Then something clicked over Winter Break and there were no problems," Norman said. "Maybe it was just time apart, time away from losing ... It was just really cool."
Written off from the playoff picture after such a difficult start, the team rallied to make the DVCHC tournament in Hagerstown, Md., rode the momentum in each of the three playoff games and the rest is history.
"We got to the tournament and we just focused on each game," Norman said. "We didn't want to be cocky and get a hotel for the whole weekend, just took it one day, one game at a time."
The championship game against California University of Pennsylvania proved to be the ultimate test for the team, as players on both sides took to the trenches and fought tooth-and-nail for the conference crown.
"They were kind of dirty, they would hit you, a girl on our team got hit last time and ended up with a concussion, unnecessary stuff," Norman said. "It was one of those teams you just want to beat, to be morally victorious and actually victorious."
The team was led by sophomores Mary and Maggie Cearley, who, as twin sisters, have been playing together since they were 6 years old. In just one of their several pretty passing plays during the championship game, the dynamic duo combined for the game-winning goal against CUP. A trademark pass from Mary to Maggie during the last seven minutes of the final period resulted in a shot that lit the lamp and gave Virginia the decisive goal in the 3-2 victory. The score sent Cavalier fans into a celebratory frenzy.
When the final seconds had ticked off the clock, "it was like 'Miracle,'" Norman said. "Everyone was crying."
Although the team has achieved remarkable success during the past few seasons, the team still struggles to gain visibility and attract new talent, hurdles which can likely be attributed to the limited popularity of women's ice hockey in the United States. But even more pressing, the team's home
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