University of St. Thomas Athletics
St. Cloud State
St. Thomas Women’s Hockey Set to Play St. Cloud State in Home-and-Home Series
10/14/2021 11:28:00 AM | Women's Hockey
Setting the Table
After a bye weekend, St. Thomas Women's Hockey (1-3 overall, 1-3 WCHA) welcomes the Huskies of St. Cloud State University (2-2 overall, 0-2 WCHA) on Friday Oct. 15 for game one of a weekend conference series. It's also the first women's hockey meeting between these programs in this sport.
Friday's game has a 3 p.m. start in Mendota Heights. The teams play again at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Herb Brooks National Ice Center in St. Cloud.
Tickets are available at tommiesports.com.
Fans can also follow all WCHA games via Big Ten-Plus, and a $50 WCHA season pass is available to purchase.
St. Cloud faced off against defending NCAA champion Wisconsin last weekend for its first WCHA series. The Huskies lost in both games, 6-0 on Saturday and 6-1 on Sunday.
Huskie Talk
Last season, St. Cloud finished 6-12-1 for sixth place in the WCHA. The Huskies return 20 players from 2020-21, including senior Jenniina Nylund (7g-5a) and junior Taylor Lind (4g-7a).
Five freshmen or redshirt freshmen joined the St. Cloud lineup this season, including Chace Sperling, a transfer from Robert Morris. The SCSU roster consists of 25 players, with 14 forwards, eight defenders and three goaltenders. The Huskies also retained three fifth-year seniors in McKenna Wesloh, Kenzie Wylie, and Emma Polusny.
Last Time Out
The Tommies split their series two weekends ago with Bemidji State, with a 3-0 loss on Friday and a 2-1 comeback win on Saturday. The Saturday victory was the first for the program at the Division I level.
Juniors Maija Almich and Luci Bianchi scored the goals for the Tommies. Freshman goaltender Saskia Maurer secured her first collegiate win in her first game as a Tommie in which she stopped 28 shots.
September Games
The Tommies fell to No. 3 ranked Ohio State on the road in the opening weekend of the 2021-22 season, Sept. 24-25, by scores of 6-0 and 4-1.
Senior goalie Alexa Dobchuk had a solid weekend - playing all 120 minutes and recording 93 saves and a .903 save percentage in the two games.
St. Thomas' lone goal came off the stick of freshman Abby Promersberger, her first of the season and first of her collegiate career. Assisting on the goal were Megan Cornell and Anna Solheim.
Schedule Talk
This series continues the 32 regular-season schedule the Tommies will play, including 14 weekend series against WCHA opponents, plus a pair of two-game series against non-conference foes.
Save Me Some
Senior goaltender Alexa Dobchuk, a transfer from Colgate, has opened her St. Thomas playing career on a strong note over three starts.
Dobchuk played all 120 minutes in the season-opening series at No. 3 Ohio State and recorded 93 saves and a .903 save percentage in the two-game series. In three starts she has stopped 123 of 136 shots.
Around the League
St. Thomas was picked to finish eighth in the eight-team league in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) preseason poll of head coaches.
1. Wisconsin (7) 49
2. Ohio State (1) 40
3. Minnesota 37
4. Minnesota Duluth 34
5. Minnesota State 25
6t. Bemidji State 16
6t. St. Cloud State 16
8. St. Thomas 7
The Tommies are the lone private university in the WCHA, joining seven public universities.
Poll Talk
The WCHA has four teams ranked in the top seven nationally: Wisconsin at No. 1, Ohio State at No. 2, Minnesota at No. 6, and Minnesota Duluth at No. 7.
Minnesota State sits just out of the top 10 among a short list of teams receiving votes.
Did You Know?
In fall 2021 St. Thomas became the first institution to make a direct move in all sports in one season from NCAA Division III into D-I athletics. The Tommies have 18 sports that compete in The Summit League; football in the Pioneer Football League; the WCHA for women's hockey; and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) for men's hockey.
The Toms were a charter member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (MIAC) in 1920. In May 2019 they were involuntarily removed from the conference, and a statement of league presidents cited "competitive athletic parity." The Tommies ended their NCAA D-III and MIAC chapters in June 2021.
St. Thomas won 16 national team championships in eight different sports, all in a 40-year span since 1981. Purple teams posted 30 national top-two team finishes in 11 different sports.
New Staff
The Tommies are being led by a new coaching staff, with head coach Joel Johnson being hired in early June. Johnson brings more than 20 years of coaching experience to the Tommies, both at the collegiate level as well as with USA Women's Hockey.
A Minnesota native and former student-athlete and later a men's hockey head coach at Bethel University, Johnson spent the last 11 seasons at the University of Minnesota as the Associate Head Coach for the women's program. He helped guide the Gophers to six national titles and 11 Frozen Fours. Johnson is also currently serving as the head coach for the U.S. Women's Hockey National team for the 2022 Winter Games set for Beijing, China.
Johnson's staff consists of two full-time assistant coaches: Bethany Brausen and Marty Sertich.
Brausen, a Little Canada, Minn., native and two-time captain at the University of Minnesota, coached with Johnson the last five seasons at Minnesota as assistants on the staff of head coach Brad Frost.
Sertich, a Roseville, Minn., native and former Hobey Baker award winner at Colorado College, served as an assistant coach at St. Thomas for the last four years.
Also joining the staff is Alli Borgstrom as the Direct of Operations. Borgstrom played for the Tommies from 2014 to 2018, in which she was a three-time All-MIAC honoree, MIAC Player of the Year, and a second team All-American.
Breaking Down the Roster
St. Thomas has 12 newcomers among its 23 players, including three veteran transfers and nine freshmen. Academically, the Tommie roster has nine freshmen, three sophomores, five juniors, four seniors, and two graduate students.
College career stat lines for the 14 Tommie non-freshmen players coming into 2021-22 (NOTE: Tommies played only eight games in 2020-21)
St. Thomas Returners: 11
• Majia Almich, Jr., F
• Luci Bianchi, Jr., F
• Fiona Claugherty, So., F
• Eryn Cooley, Sr,.,G
• Anna Erickson, S, F
• Jenna Hartung, Jr., F
• Emma Larson, Jr., D
• Isabel Lippai, So., D
• Allie Monrean, Jr., F
• Alli Pitlick, So., F
• Anna Solheim, Sr., F
St. Thomas Incoming Transfers: 3
• Megan Cornell, Grad.Student., D, Dartmouth
• Alexa Dobchuk, RJr., G, Colgate
• Megan Korzack, Grad.Student, F, Mercyhurst
Fresh-man Faces: 9
St. Thomas' nine-player freshman class comes to campus from as close as the Northwest Twin Cities suburbs (three players) and as far as Switzerland (two players) and Sweden (one):
• Maddy Clough, 2021, Andover, Minn./Andover, 5-4, D
• Madelynn Jurgensen, 2021, Andover, Minn./Andover, 5-10, F
• Saskia Maurer, 2021, Rothenbach, Switzerland, 5-6, G
• Marki Oberg, 2021, Alexandria, Minn.,/ Alexandria, 5-5, F
• Alli Pahl, 2021, Medicine Hat, Alberta, 5-10, D
• Abby Promersberger, 2021, Fargo, N.D./Oak Grove Lutheran, 5-6, F
• Lauren Stenslie, 2021, Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove, 5-3, F
• Elvira Svensson, 2021, Trollhattan, Sweden, 5-11 D
• Nicole Vallario, 2021, Lugano, Switzerland, 5-5, D
Academic Talk
St. Thomas has five returning players who received the AHCA All-America Scholar Award last school year with a 3.60 or better gpa each semester:
• Maija Almich (Jr., Circle Pines, Minn.), Mechanical Engineering major
• Luci Bianchi (Jr., Bloomington, Minn.), Exercise Science
• Anna Erickson (Sr., Fargo, N.D.), Political Science
• Allie Monrean (Jr., Anchorage, Alaska), Chemistry
• Anna Solheim (Sr., Shoreview, Minn.), Operations and Supply Chain Management
Program History
This is the 23rd season of varsity hockey for the Tommie women. It also marks the 19th season of practice and home games at Saint Thomas Ice Arena.
St. Thomas reached the Division III national semifinals in March 2019 and set a school record with 25 wins. Three players remain from that team and are current seniors – goalie Eryn Cooley and forwards Anna Erickson and Anna Solheim.
The Tommies also played in the March 2014 national semifinals and closed that season 20-7-3.
The last four Tommie seasons in Division III produced a 59-18-12 record (.730).
In other highlights of the Tommies' D-III era on the ice:
• Two Final Four appearances in last six full seasons (2014-19)
• 15 All-America honors in last 16 years
• No losing seasons in last 20 years
• 2018-19 team ranked No. 1 nationally (first time in program history)
• Nine of a possible 12 conference regular-season or playoff titles in last six seasons as a member • Top-three conference finishes each of last 19 seasons when standings were kept
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