UConn women’s hockey hopes to lean on leadership this season

STORRS, CT (WFSB) - The UConn women’s hockey team doesn’t have a lot of time to get things figured out.

Its first game is Sunday.

The one thing fans can expect from the Huskies is leadership.

The team returns four 5th-year seniors.

Camryn Wong, Coryn Tormala Claire Peterson and Ainsley Svetek all came back with the idea that this could be UConn’s best hockey season ever.

Head coach Chris MacKenszie expected that experience to be a huge advantage.

“There is a saying that, you know, ‘seniors know too much, and freshman don’t know anything,’” MacKenszie said. “‘So, you want a team filled with sophomores and juniors.’ These people are motivated. They’re trying to get better, they don’t know it all, myself included, [and] we’re all trying to get better.”

One player who should be better is goalkeeper Tia Chang. She spent all of last season playing for China in the Olympics.

“My previous definition of hard work totally changed when I saw athletes at the Olympics, and my team, they’re 24-7 mindset is on hockey,” Chang said. “That definitely changed my perspective on it. Yeah, the way they treat their bodies, the mindset, and everything that goes into it.”

The robust veteran team will be inspired and pushed by 8 freshman who have come to college ready to play.

“They’ve been phenomenal,” said Ainsley Svetek, a UConn grad student. “They’ve put in work everyday, they’ve pushed the upperclassmen, they’ve pushed every single person around them to be better, and I think that mindset growing up, and coming in at that age, and being able to have that mindset now is huge and that’s why I’m so excited about this year.”

“I think it’s hard for us to say no to a 5th year. I think all of us, it’s hard to say no because we have such a good culture, that cultures been built thru years and years, we thank our alumni for that, but yeah, it feels awesome to have teammates that want to come back and want to support the program, everything is positive,” said Chang.

“Yeah, I really thinks it speaks volumes to who we are, who we are as a program, our culture, people love coming to the rink, people love being here, we can be ourselves here, we all strive for the same thing, we all have the same goal, and having that energy every single day and wanting to be here, and having everyone around you make your day better because they want to be here, it’s something you don’t want to get rid of and goes beyond just this program, it goes beyond this program, beyond everyone here, the program is the way it is because of the school and the way the school has made it, and I think we’re all so fortunate to be UConn athletes which is why one wants it to end,” Svetek said.

The team made a big move last season. It won 18 games and ranked in the top 20 several times along the way.

That’s why there’s a lot of excitement around the program, and big expectations to go with it.

The UConn women’s hockey team opens the season Sunday at Penn State.