Women's ice hockey skates into history

For the first time in Norwich's history, the women's hockey team won the Division III National Championship.

"I think that it was the whole team; we all knew what we wanted and I think the upperclassman led the way and the freshmen followed our lead," said Julie Fortier, 22, a junior sports medicine major from Saint-Malachie, Quebec.

 "I believed in our team, we had so much experience from last year (so) I knew it could be possible," said Melissa Rundlett, 21, a junior physical education major from Saco, Maine.

When the Cadets lost in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) championship to Manhattanville College with a score of 4-2, the chances of NCAA play narrowed.

"As soon as we lost to Manhattanville it took a few moments to realize that our season could be down the drain," said Amanda Wilks, a 21-year-old junior majoring in athletic training from Winnipeg, Man.

But the Norwich women received a bid to the NCCA playoffs and  to the semi-final games that would be held in Rochester, N.Y.

Some people voiced doubts on whether the team deserved this privilege.

"I think we showed that we belonged there, after playing two great games this weekend, you can't really take one game and decide off that game. If you look at our whole season we won so many important games against highly ranked teams, so I think we belonged there," said Cindy Fortin, a 23-year-old senior, athletic training and health sciences major from Quebec City.

After finding out that the next game the team would play was two weeks away, mental and physical preparations started immediately.

"I was just trying to focus on what I have been focusing on all year. I focused on every shot, thinking that the next shot was the most important one and being aggressive. Most importantly I didn't want to focus on what happened two weeks before against Manhattanville," Fortin said.

"I cut out all the outside things that were going on in my life and just focused on hockey," said Jill DeBus, 20, a freshman nursing major, from Howell, Mich.

 "Personally I try to give everything I have, I am always careful of how I eat and how I rest; it's very important for me," Fortier said.

The first game the Cadets played in was against Gustavus Adolphus, no strangers to the national stage.

Norwich took the early lead against the Gusties in the first period with two goals from junior forward Julie Fortier. The game got more intense as it progressed into the third period.

With the Gusties' season on the line they came out fighting in the third.

"I think that since we were ahead so early on in the game it was easy for everyone to get unfocused from what we were trying to achieve. When we went into the third period up by four goals I guess we didn't seem as focused and we sat back a little, which made it a closer game than it should have been," Wilks said.

Norwich prevailed, winning 5-4. The Cadets went onto the finals against Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).

The Cadets prepared for the next game by looking over game film and correcting mistakes that were made against Gustavus.

"We looked over film on Saturday morning, we looked at the positive side of things and we went over coach's notes," Rundlett said.

The Cadets had lost to the RIT Tigers in their first game of the season.

"I was really nervous because I know that I didn't play well against RIT the first time we played them, I had gotten three penalties. We had been there before so it helped with the experience of how hard the game was actually going to be," Fortier said.

The plan all year against opponents was to score first and to score fast, according to one of the players. This is exactly what the Cadets did, scoring three goals in the first period and never looking back from there.

"It was probably when I went out onto the ice with 40 seconds left and we were up by three goals  and they had pulled their goalie with two minutes left; I realized we were that close to winning a national championship," Wilks said.

As the final buzzer sounded and the Cadets skated over to Fortin, their goaltender, as national champions, the expectations of the team had been accomplished.

"It was unbelievable, there are no words to describe the feeling especially being a senior; we've come such a long way and I couldn't have asked for a better ending," Fortin said.