Cornell v. Syracuse Women's Hockey

SU just released their hockey schedule for next season and the Cornell women will pay a visit. I never took in a women's hockey game at Cornell. Are the fans into the game? Do they travel well? Its just up the road?

I hope things have changed since I was at Cornell in the 90's. I remember going to some of the afternoon games at Lynah, and there were maybe about 50 people and 2-3 dogs (including my dog Morgan). Occasionally the pep band was there.

PS. I think it is great for Women's Hockey that Syracuse has added a program. They have always had some very talented girls teams and it is great that the girls in Central NY now have another option for playing hockey close to home.

Rita
I hope things have changed since I was at Cornell in the 90's. I remember going to some of the afternoon games at Lynah, and there were maybe about 50 people and 2-3 dogs (including my dog Morgan). Occasionally the pep band was there.

It's still that way. A few parents, a few boyfriends, (a few girlfriends), and some kids who walk up and rarely stay the whole game.

It would be great if they could somehow piggy-back off the men's popularity. The complete lack of any crowd noise sucks most of the excitement out of the game, and it becomes like watching an indoor track and field tourny.

In my limited experience at women's games it's hard to build excitement when a beautiful hip check gets you sent to the box.

Not that hockey is all about the physical game but it does help generate energy and excitement among spectators. (Clean, hard hits. I'm not talking about clutch and grab.)

The women's game is different than the men's game and most fans of the men's game might find it less exciting. And traditionally Cornell has not had a nationally-ranked women's hockey team so the draw of going to Lynah to watch your team devastate the opposition didn't always exist either.

While it won't happen over night, this is changing. Doug Derraugh is doing a great job recruiting extremely talented players. For example, rising junior Rebecca Johnston is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world. She missed a number of Cornell games this past season playing for Team Canada and competed with them recently in the World Championships in Finland. And if you look at the "last team" played for in the roster, you will see Team Canada listed for 3 of the rising sophomores as well as Team Alberta, Team Manitoba, etc. for 5 more players. Cornell is attracting some of the best female players in their age group to our program. The future for the Cornell women's team looks very positive and it would be tremendous for the program to have fan support as well.

I've been to a few games each of the past three years and it's clear that the team is progressing nicely under Derraugh. Of course, having Johnston has made a huge difference. She's a lot of fun to watch and folks should take the opportunity to go out and see her play. Last season she averaged 1.73 ppg, which is nearly the combined production of Riley Nash and Colin Greening. In 36 games, Johnston's production would have projected to 62 points -- how good would have the men's team been with a 62 point player added to it?

ithacat
I've been to a few games each of the past three years and it's clear that the team is progressing nicely under Derraugh. Of course, having Johnston has made a huge difference. She's a lot of fun to watch and folks should take the opportunity to go out and see her play. Last season she averaged 1.73 ppg, which is nearly the combined production of Riley Nash and Colin Greening. In 36 games, Johnston's production would have projected to 62 points -- how good would have the men's team been with a 62 point player added to it?

Did I remember reading here that Johnston is taking next year off from CU to focus on her Team Canada experience? If so, that may seem like a blow to the team, but maybe it could help the team grow stronger upon her return by putting pressure on them to perform without her, especially with a reportedly strong freshman class coming in.

IMO Cornell's success in sports on the women's side has been less spectacular than for the men. Cornell is very good year in, year out at hockey and lacrossee, and recently has a short run of success in basketball. The women's lacrosse team had, what, one nationally competitive team this decade and I'm not sure hockey has gotten that far. Meanwhile, Harvard and Dartmouth do well in women's hockey, so I'd hope we could, too.

It's something to hope for in the next 5-10 years.

Johnston and Jenner are taking the year off to train with (and hopefully make) Team Canada. It'll be interesting to see how Cornell performs without them. It might make next season more of a challenge, but it should ultimately help the program move forward.