Team Notes: Cornell Faces Minnesota-Duluth in National Title Contest

Photo by Jim Rosvold

The following article appeared March 20 on the Cornell Web site.

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- At the beginning of the season, the Cornell women’s hockey team set the lofty goal of winning a national championship, an achievement few outside the Big Red locker room thought possible. On Sunday, the Big Red will play for a national title, facing second-seeded Minnesota-Duluth at 12 p.m. CDT at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. Sunday’s title tilt will be televised nationally by CBS College Sports with Dave Ryan and Angela Ruggerio providing the call of the action.

HEAD COACH DOUG DERRAUGH
While the list of accomplishments for the Cornell women’s hockey team grows with each game, so too do the list of achievements for the Big Red’s bench boss, Doug Derraugh. In his fifth season, he has guided the Big Red to its first league regular-season championship, first playoff and playoff series victories, first league tournament title and NCAA tournament appearance, and now, its first NCAA tournament wins and first berth in the national title game. Derraugh, a 1991 alumnus of Cornell University, has rebuilt the program from one that won just four games in the year prior to his arrival into one of the top young programs in the country. Derraugh has a career coaching record of 58-80-15, and has guided the Big Red to double-digit win totals in each of the last three seasons and a berth in the league playoffs for three straight years. Derraugh took over the program prior to the 2005-06 season after a 13-year professional playing career in Europe. Derraugh is assisted by fourth-year assistant Danielle Biloudeau, a former Cornell player and 2001 graduate, and Edith Zimering, in her first season with the Big Red.

ABOUT THE BIG RED
Cornell continues to be the surprise of the postseason among outside observers, as the Big Red has knocked off a pair of seeded teams on its way to the national title game. The Big Red’s latest victim was the top-seeded Mercyhurst Lakers, as Cornell scored a 3-2 win in overtime in the national semifinals on Friday night at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. Sophomore Catherine White scored the game-winning goal at the 13:14 mark of overtime as the Big Red moved into the national title game in its first appearance in the NCAA tournament. Freshman Laura Fortino and junior Karlee Overguard both added goals for the Big Red in the victory, with Overguard recording a multi-point game with an assist on Fortino’s first-period goal. The Big Red also got 28 saves from sophomore goaltender Amanda Mazzotta, who remained unbeaten in post-season play this year. The Big Red went 0-for-6 on the power play against the Lakers, but also held Mercyhurst scoreless in five power-play chances. On the year, White leads the team offensively with 42 points in 32 games on 13 goals and 29 assists. Sophomore Chelsea Karpenko leads the team with 17 goals on the year while adding in 14 assists for 31 points. In all, five players have more than 10 goals this season, while nine players have scored double-digits in points. In goal, Mazzotta has played all but one game, posting a .925 save percentage and a 1.53 goals-against average. The Big Red’s power play unit has converted on 20.9 percent of its chances (29-of-139) to rank first in ECAC Hockey and fourth in the nation. The penalty-killing unit, meanwhile, has successfully ended 93.5 percent of the opposition’s power plays (115-of-123), tops in the nation.

Complete article can be accessed via the Cornell Web site by clicking here.