NEW HAVEN, CT -- Junior forward Sarah Tittman (Chilton, Wisc./Chilton High/Wisconsin Wild) has been elected Yale's women's ice hockey captain for 2008-09. Tittman was selected by a team vote last Wednesday night at Ray Tompkins House. She is the 32nd captain in Yale history.
 
"Being selected as captain by my teammates is such an honor," said Tittman. "We have an enormous amount of talent and leadership returning, and I am very excited to build on the successes we had this past season."
 
Tittman enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2007-08, setting career highs in goals (12), assists (nine) and points (21) as the Bulldogs made their seventh straight ECAC Hockey playoff appearance. She led the team in goals and was second in points. Tittman increased her goal total from the previous season by 11, the biggest season-to-season improvement by a Yale player in 18 years and the second-biggest improvement in school history.
 
"Sarah's confidence level coming into the season was high," Yale head coach Hilary Witt said. "She had a ton of opportunities the year before, but not much luck. I think she hit more posts than any player in the history of Yale women's hockey. This year she found the back of the net instead of the posts."
 
Three of Tittman's goals came during the Nutmeg Classic at the end of December, as she helped Yale to a second-place finish at that tournament and earned MVP honors in the process. She was also selected ECAC Hockey Player of the Week for her efforts.
 
Noted as one of the team's best special-teams players, Tittman helped the Bulldogs to the eighth-best combined special teams rating in the NCAA (177 for 323, 54.8 percent). She was whistled for just seven penalties all season and only one in the final 18 games.
 
In a mid-season survey of team members, Tittman received every vote as the team's best leader other than the captain and also was selected as the team's strongest player.
 
"Sarah earned the captaincy with her exceptional work ethic and her ability to lead by example," said Witt. "There are a lot of great leaders in her class. Sarah knows that, and she is going to rely on them for help."
 
Tittman and her classmates -- forward Crysti Howser (Wilmette, Ill.), forward Danielle Kozlowski (Melrose, Mass.), defenseman Carlee Ness (Red Deer, Alta.), forward Carry Resor (Westwood, Mass.), defenseman Helen Resor (Greenwich, Conn.), forward Kristen Stupay (Ashburn, Va.) and forward Maggie Westfal (New Canaan, Conn.)  -- have won 37 games in three seasons, placing them 17 wins shy of the school record for victories by a class entering the 2008-09 season.
 
"Leadership from the entire senior class will be instrumental to our success next year," Tittman said. "The work ethic of our class is second-to-none both on and off the ice. One of our major goals for next season is to earn home ice in the playoffs, and if we play at the level we did at the end of last season we will have a very successful season."
 
A biomedical engineering major in Calhoun College at Yale, Tittman is a two-time ECAC Hockey All-Academic selection. She is also active in the community, teaching local children sports skills on Youth Days as part of Yale's Thomas W. Ford '42 Community Outreach Program. She also tutors elementary and middle school students and has volunteered with the Salvation Army. 
 
Tittman is Yale's first captain from Wisconsin. Prior to Yale, she played for the Wisconsin Wild and was a 2005 USA Hockey player development camp selection.
 
Tittman attended Chilton High School, where she was salutatorian, a Wisconsin All-State Scholar candidate, an All-Area Scholar candidate, a Navy-Army National Scholar-Athlete and winner of the Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award. In addition to playing hockey, she was on the track and volleyball teams and was captain and MVP in both of those sports.
 
Tittman will be introduced as captain at Yale's annual team banquet Apr. 16.