League Well-Represented at USA Hockey Festival
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Seven current and four former League standouts are among the 79 players selected to participate in the 2011 USA Hockey Women's National Festival, which will take place August 10-20 at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minn., it was announced by USA Hockey.
Current League standouts attending the Festival are the Harvard trio of Jillian Dempsey, Marissa Gedman, Josephine Pucci; the Dartmouth duo of Lindsay Holdcroft and Kelly Foley; Alyssa Gagliardi of Cornell; and Jordan Smelker of Rensselaer.
Caitlin Cahow (Harvard), Julie Chu (Harvard), Sasha Sherry (Princeton) and Jackee Snikeris (Yale) comprise the former League standouts participating at the Festival. Chu also serves as an assistant coach at Union.
Dartmouth head coach Mark Hudak, Princeton head coach Jeff Kampersal and Yale assistant coach Jessica Koizumi also are participating at the Festival. Hudak is serving as head coach; Kampersal as an assistant coach; and Koizumi is among the 79 players.
The Festival will serve as the selection camp for the 2011
U.S. Women's Team that will compete in the International Ice Hockey
Federation Eight Nations Tournament in Vierumäki, Finland,
Aug. 24-31 and the 2011 U.S Women's Under-18 Team that will take on
Canada in a three-game series Aug. 18-21 in Rockland, Ont.
"We're excited to be heading to the National Sports Center with 79 of the most talented players in the nation," said Reagan Carey, director of women's hockey for USA Hockey. "We're proud of the success our women's program has enjoyed, but we know we can become even better."
The Festival participants will be divided into four teams for daily practices and games at the Schwan Super Rink, part of the National Sports Center.
USA Hockey intends to announce the roster for the 2011 U.S. Women's Under-18 Team on Aug. 15 and the roster for the 2011 U.S. Women's Team on Aug. 19.
