“Don’t doubt the effort” became the unofficial team motto for the Rensselaer women’s hockey team in their inaugural Division I season. Critics would agree with the maxim. Effort would be all a team comprised of mostly Division III talent could offer at college ice hockey’s top tier. Eighteen wins, two ties, and just six losses later, the Engineers proved they can offer more than just effort.
RPI erased any doubts about their D-I credibility this season, both internally and externally. The team modestly set a goal of 10 wins for the 2005-2006 campaign. They hit their mark in just 11 games.
“We started surprising people right away … a lot of people,” junior captain Sarah Daniel said with a smile, reflecting back on this season. “We certainly exceeded everyone else’s expectations, maybe even our own.”
But there was doubt among the Engineers, especially as RPI prepared to face off with Colgate, a team that many of the seniors remembered losing to, 6-1, during their freshman year.
“I think we went into Colgate not really knowing what to expect,” senior forward Kari Rabatin said. “We were hoping to compete. We didn’t want to get smoked our first game.”
It was Rabatin who would score the game-winner in overtime to shock Colgate and the rest of women’s hockey back on October 14 in Hamilton, N.Y. They followed the 3-2 win up with a 1-1 tie the following day at Houston Field House and started a trend that would take them 11 games into the season. RPI started off the season with an impressive, and frankly shocking, 10-0-1 record, not losing their first game until November 19 at Maine. That start ignited the Engineers and helped propel them through the rest of the season.
“It gave us a lot more confidence for the rest of the year,” freshman Melanie Guillemette said.
According to Daniel, it also fostered team chemistry, which was important considering the Engineers were welcoming in nine new freshmen—some on the program’s first set of athletic scholarships. Senior assistant captain Katie Temple joked that the seniors “were an integral part” of the team’s successful cohesiveness.
Temple might be joking, but the freshmen were not when they praised the senior class. The Engineer rookies summed up their view of this year’s senior class in one word: “heart.”
“[Their] dedication to the program … they’re the ones who started it,” freshman Laura Menken said when asked what this year’s class is leaving behind. “We wouldn’t be going D-I if it wasn’t for them.”
For a while, this year’s senior class was left to wonder if they would ever get the chance to play D-I. Many of this year’s class passed on, or were passed on, by D-I schools for RPI with the understanding the program would be elevated.
The introduction of NCAA Proposal 65 in 2004, however, threatened to prevent D-III schools from “playing up” in one sport thereby placing the already D-I men’s program in peril, and postponing the women’s elevation. After Proposal 65-1 was passed, it amended the original proposal to allow D-III schools with already established D-I programs to retain their teams. The women’s plan for ascending to D-I was announced to bring RPI in compliance within the legal justifications of Title IX.
“The class ahead of us, and the class ahead of them were all told they’d be playing D-I their senior year,” Rabatin said. “It was exciting to finally get there.”
This year’s senior class had been craving the competition after years of cakewalking through the ECAC East at the D-III level.
“It was very exciting knowing every game was going to be a battle,” senior Julie Welte said. “You knew you had to show up to play every week or you’re going to get beat.”
Senior Day against Quinnipiac—the last game of the season—also marked some final justification for assistant captain Allison Malcolm and senior goaltender Rosina Schiff. Both Malcolm and Schiff were told they were not good enough to play for the Bobcats, making the Engineers’ 3-2 win and Schiff’s 31 saves even more gratifying.
Schiff also set the RPI record for career games played, started, and won as a goaltender at RPI— achievements she desperately tries to play down.
The seniors also walk away feeling as though they carried on and completed former coach Bill Cahill’s legacy. Cahill, who died of a heart attack less than a month prior to the 2003 season, was the man who gave the initial shove to move the women’s program to D-I.
“There were times when we wished he could have been here,” Schiff said. “But there were times when we all felt like he was.”
Despite all the positives, and they certainly outweighed the negatives, the season was not a total bed of roses for the Engineers. The players all struggled individually and collectively to make the adjustment to the D-I game.
Daniel said the speed of the game bothered her initially, the seniors hated the lengthy travel, and the freshmen struggled with everything.
During the year, the Engineers endured a four-game losing streak, which included a sweep at the hands of Wayne State as part of a nine- game road trip. Rabatin said the road trip caused her and several other of the Engineers to miss one class so often that when they walked into the class for only the second time, three weeks into the semester, they discovered they had a test.
The team also ran into other off-the-ice issues. Freshmen Emily Donowick, Nicole McDonald, and Jamie-Lynn Stewart all missed the contest against nationally-ranked Clarkson on January 28 for breaking team rules and Daniel, a Canadian citizen, missed the game against McGill on February 10 due to a mix up with her legal status in the United States.
But the struggles were minimal, especially considering the obstacles RPI faced. And while this year’s Engineers encountered doubts, next year will be met with increased expectations both internally and externally.
Daniel admits she would like to make the ECACHL playoffs next season, which means finishing in the top eight of the 12-team league. A reasonable goal, considering RPI beat Union, Colgate, and Quinnipiac-all ECACHL teams-this season. Daniel admits the success will only come if everyone maintains the work ethic instilled by the seniors, and maintained throughout the season.
“Everyone realizes how hard we had to work this year,” Daniel said. “I’m worn out right now, but I’m already looking for ice time. I’m itching to get started for next year.”
Editor’s note: Senior Reporter Lyle Newman contributed to this report.
