Penn Sports Plus: Women's Ice Hockey Edition

This week, we feature the one of the captains of the women's ice hockey team at Penn, Alyssa Eng, who takes us onto the ice and into her sport.

What drew you to women's hockey?

Eng: I played a little bit of pond hockey growing up, and always loved it though I never got into organized hockey. When I came to college I thought it would be a lot of fun to pick up. It's just a fun game, and I love skating.

How similar is it to the men's game?

Eng: Women's hockey, like many other sports with men's and women's teams, holds variations but are basically the same game at heart. I suppose the biggest one would be that there is no checking in women's hockey.

This year, the team has done very well, while last year was another story, when you played Division 1. Is the drop off of talent that big between D1 and D2, or has the team gotten significantly better since last year?

Eng: Our team has improved a lot this year, due to a great group of talented

girls who joined this year, in addition to building on a great team chemistry we had last year. Our team is very close, and I think that friendship helps us when we play. In addition, our team expanded from about 12 girls last year to about 24 this year, with many who had played throughout high school, though we did take beginners. This means we can field a full team every game, with many experienced players.

Two years ago we were in the D1 and did poorly, due to the size of the team being about 10 girls and without an experienced goalie. Last year we moved down to D2 and came in second, so we are always improving. I wouldn't say that the talent level is a huge drop off between the divisions, I mean there is a step up, but the schools in the D1 have more consistant hockey programs in terms of their size and talent. We are thinking of joining the D1 for next year as we now have the numbers and experience.

Walk us through a typical practice. What types of drills do you do? How exhausting is practice?

Eng: We practice twice a week. Tuesday mornings and Friday afternoons. We get out, stretch, do skating drills to warm up, warm up our goalies, and start to do drills, scrimmages, and games to fill the rest of practice. Each practice is different based on what the coaches think we should work on. Some days we focus more on breakout drills, others on shooting drills, and others on passing drills. I wouldn't ever call it exhausting, we try to keep in shape. Some practices are more intense than others. One of our coaches likes to skate us a lot more, but it's always a nice workout.

What's the best moment that you remember happening while you were on the team?

Eng: On ice, I would say when we beat Rutgers for the first time this year. It was an intense game, and it was very close for the first two periods. They were kind of our rivals from last year, and we lost to them in the finals, so it was great to get a win this year. Off ice, one of the girls on the team got a puppy this year, and she came to one of our games as our team mascot. It was amazing.

Finally, what would you say to someone who thinks hockey is just for guys?

Eng: I would say they should come to a practice and try it out! Assuming they were a girl of course. And in the wise words of the Spice Girls: Hi cee ya hold tight. Girl power. Zig a zig ahhh. Hockey is a great sport and so much fun to play. It really is for everyone.