This weekend the women’s hockey team had one of its best weekends in recent history. They beat then-No. 9 Boston University at BU, and swept Niagara at Matthews Arena. This was in large part thanks to the phenomenal play of sophomore forward Alyssa Wohlfeiler. Wohlfeiler had a part in five of NU’s seven goals this weekend with a goal and four assists. This earned her this week’s Huntington News Player of the Week honors.
As a native of Santa Clarita, Calif., ice hockey was not a common sport for her. She started playing roller hockey at age 5, following in her cousin’s footsteps. Her cousin quit, but she stuck with it. By age 10 she found out about an all-girls travel ice hockey team, California Selects.
‘ It was hard [to get involved with hockey], I didn’t even know about ice, I didn’t know there was ice hockey, I didn’t know it was a big deal,’ Wohlfeiler said. ‘ I knew the NHL, but I didn’t think it was for girls. So I just played roller [hockey] and someone told me about [the California Selects.]’
As her interest in hockey grew she decided she wanted to play Division I collegiate hockey. She quickly realized she was going to have to travel far from home. The closest school with a Division 1 women’s program was North Dakota. Three schools, Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth and Providence, approached Wohlfeiler. Northeastern was a dark horse and snuck in, she said.
‘ I knew I wanted to play college hockey,’ Wohlfeiler said. ‘ I knew that for a long time. So I just had to prepare myself for moving away because the closest school with Division I hockey is North Dakota and that is still pretty far away.’
This season started off extremely strong for the Huskies. They started on a 5-0-2 tear, including four shutouts and a win over then-No.10 Connecticut. They swooned a bit but were able to rebound this weekend.
Wohlfeiler has been instrumental with the resurgence of the team. She is currently tied for second in points with 13, five goals and eight assists, while playing in every game this season.
‘Last year Niagara embarrassed us so it was nice to get some payback,’ Wohlfeiler said. ‘ I think we will be able to keep the intensity up because it’s the end of the season and we know we are fighting for a playoff spot. When it’s early you kind of don’t see that far ahead, but now that playoffs are really coming up and Beanpot, you just focus more.’
-Nathan Vaughan,
News Staff
