2008-09 Cobber Women's Hockey Season Preview

Courtesy of GoCobbers.com, Release: October 27, 2008

The 2008-09 Season Preview

Concordia women’s hockey head coach Ace Gregg has steadily led the Cobbers up the mountain of the MIAC conference standings in his first two seasons on the job. After finishing just outside the playoff picture in 2006-07, Gregg led his charges onto the playoff mountain last season. For his efforts he was named the MIAC Coach of the Year. This year Gregg will be hoping to lead CC towards the very peak of the conference and a crack at the conference championship.

Gregg is optimistic as he enters his third season as head coach. He returns his top five scorers from last season and a pair of goalies that could be considered the two best team tandem in the league. The only question mark for Concordia as they enter the 2008-09 campaign will be on the blue line where the Cobbers have quality but lack the quantity that might be needed to survive the long conference winter.

Senior forwards Alyssa Dahl (Willmar, Minn.) and Bre Bian (Cedarburg, Wis.) will be the offensive leaders for the Cobbers once again. Both players had identical seven goal and 11 assist point totals in 2007-08. Dahl was named to the MIAC All-Conference Team and led the team in scoring in conference games. She had at least one point in 11 MIAC games and was tied for eighth in the league in assists in conference games. She will be helped by the fact that she is now solely concentrating on hockey this season. After combining volleyball and hockey in her first three years, Dahl will be more rested and in hockey shape once the season starts on Oct. 31. Bian led the team in assists in 2006-07 and has 21 assists in the past two seasons.

Brit Vander Kooy (Sr., Redlands, Calif.) will be counted to log many minutes of ice time as the team’s top defenseman. Vander Kooy was named to the MIAC All-Conference team last season after appearing in all 18 conference games and helping CC finish third in the league in scoring defense. She will also be an integral part of the Cobber special teams. Last year her presence on the penalty kill helped Concordia kill off 37 power play attempts during one stretch.

If championships are won with defense then Concordia should once again be at the top of the league. The Cobbers return a pair of outstanding shot blockers. Junior Maddie Haroldson (Sartell, Minn.) and sophomore Julie York (Bismarck, N.D.) have each proved they can carry the team on their shoulders when the offense is having a hard time finding the net. Both goalies played in at least eight games last year and both posted goals against averages under 2.40. Haroldson led the team in wins and logged over 800 minutes between the pipes. She has an impressive 2.35 goals against average in her career as a Cobber. York was named to the All-MIAC Honorable Mention Team in 2007-08 after posting a 1.50 GAA in her six conference games. She would have been third in the MIAC in goals against average and save percentage had she not suffered a concussion that kept from playing the minimum number of games to qualify for the statistical leaders.

Gregg also brought in a quality recruiting class that will help push the upperclassmen back up the conference mountain. One of the top newcomers will be Emily Sell (So., Williston, N.D.) who transferred to Concordia from the University of North Dakota where she played in 34 games as a freshman. Sell was the Miss Hockey award winner in the state of North Dakota in 2006-07 and is the all-time leading scorer in the state. Sell will be joined by nine freshmen who all have varied amounts of success in their high school careers.

The mix of playoff experience and youthful talent should help Gregg push Concordia back into the conference playoff hunt and hopefully another altitude level from their third-place finish last season.