The University of Michigan Women's Ice Hockey team represents the University of Michigan (U-M) in Women's Division 1 of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) and in the Central Collegiate Women's Hockey Association (CCWHA). The team was founded in 1994 and has been consistently strong throughout its existence, winning a pair of CCWHA playoff titles (in a total of ten appearances in the league championship game) and qualifying for 13 of the 18 ACHA National Tournaments held for women's teams, a number that ranks third all-time behind Massachusetts and Michigan State.
History
Early Years (1994–2002)
The Wolverines were co-founded in 1994 by Sue McDowell, who has remained involved with the team in various capacities throughout its existence (although, emphasizing the difficulty of assembling early club hockey records, Michigan State has claimed that its 1995 founding makes it the oldest women's club hockey team in the state of Michigan). McDowell, a Massachusetts native, moved to Michigan in 1985 and took a job in U-M's IT department as a faculty liaison. She was dismayed at the lack of girls hockey in her new home state, leading to her starting the Wolverines' team and becoming heavily involved in local youth programs.
In 1996–97, the Central Collegiate Women's Hockey Association was formed (notably pre-dating the women's hockey championships of both the ACHA and NCAA, as well as nearly every other women's college hockey conference), featuring Michigan as one of its charter members and the only team that has participated in each league season to date. The CCWHA provided an unprecedented level of organization and structure to an era when teams often filled out hodgepodge schedules with amateur adult teams and often did not have any sort of championship competition at the end of each season. The Wolverines, along with arch rival Ohio State, were among the most immediately successful teams in the CCWHA. At the inaugural 1997 CCWHA tournament, U-M swept a pool including Western Michigan, Bowling Green and Illinois, then beat Michigan State in the semi-finals, before losing to OSU for the championship. The Buckeyes would go on to win the first three CCWHA titles before moving to NCAA Division I in 1999 and becoming a varsity program.
That development would prove beneficial to the Wolverines, who would become the CCWHA's dominant team over the next couple seasons. In 2000–01, U-M smashed their way to a 24–1–1 regular season mark (including an unbeaten conference record, as the team's only defeat was to non-league opponent Arizona State) before defeating hosting Lake Superior State, Michigan State and Western Michigan en route to the CCWHA playoff title. There was plenty of credit to go around for the success: Meghan Collier was the team's leading scorer with 49 goals among her 67 points, Jackie Neal led the way with 24 assists, and goalies Dana Aronson and Christine Granger largely split duties, posting goals against averages of 0.94 and 1.19, respectively. Michigan was an inaugural member of the ACHA's first women's division (initially called the "Women's Division," then "Women's Division 1" after a second women's division was added in 2006–07), which began play in that 2000–01 season and received the appropriate national spoils for a strong season. Collier became U-M's initial first team All-American, while the Wolverines received a bid to the ACHA National Tournament after finishing second in the ACHA's East Region (the team placed in the top spot for the first four periods before being edged out by Penn State in the fifth and final regular-season ranking).
At nationals, Michigan made history by participating in the opening game of the ACHA's first women's tournament, held in Wentzville, Missouri. Collier scored the first goal in tourney history, although the Wolverines had to settle for a tie with Colorado en route to a disappointing fifth-place finish, thanks largely to a 3–2 loss to Pittsburgh that saw U-M outshoot the Panthers 32–13.
A Brief Struggle (2002–2004)
Although it turned out to be a two-season blip relative to Michigan's typical success level, the Wolverines struggled during the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, a period that saw the departure of CCWHA-winning coach Hal Krenkel, and the one-year tenure of Steve Wartecker. In 2002–03, despite a strong first half and a fourth straight trip to the conference championship game (a 1–0 loss to Michigan State), the Wolverines dropped from second in the central region to third in the final ranking period to miss the tournament. Under the selection format used at the time, the top two teams in each region were picked for nationals, with two wild cards (generally, the third-ranked team in two of the three regions) rounding out a field of eight. However, for the 2003 tournament, Western Michigan (ranked below Michigan at fifth in the central) received a hosting autobid, limiting things to just one wild card, the west region's St. Cloud State.
Despite the senior years of program legends like Collier and Neal, things went from near-miss to far-miss the following season. The 2003–04 schedule saw a disastrous 4–19–2 mark, with three of the four wins coming against a Notre Dame program that was a year away from going on hiatus.
A Winters-Era Turnaround (2004–2008)
Michigan's struggles would prove to be short-lived, thanks largely to new head coach Adam Winters (with Andrea Shear as co-coach during the first half of Winters' tenure) and a bevy of talented reinforcements. Players arriving at U-M in 2003 and 2004 included greats like Megan Lobeck, Lauren Lobert, Laine Schmid, Cheryl Mervich and Hillary Eagen. Jennifer Barnhart provided steady goaltending through the middle part of the decade, including being named the CCWHA's most valuable player in 2004–05, a season that saw her play every minute in the maize and blue crease.
In 2004–05, U-M got off to an inauspicious 1–6–1 start thanks in part to a tough schedule including Michigan State and Western Michigan, but the team's fortunes turned on a dime in early November and the Wolverines would only lose a pair of games through the remainder of the regular season, both to a powerful Northern Michigan team that would go on to the ACHA National Tournament. Key victories in the stretch included a 2–1 overtime result over Penn State on Darcy Utter's winner as well as the 6–0 win over Oakland that began the turnaround and featured two goals each from Schmid, Utter and Stacey Moses. At the end of the year, and following another CCWHA playoff run to the title game, Michigan ranked 11th nationally, but was initially bumped from the now-12-team field thanks once again to autobids – this time a host bid given to Buffalo (which was unranked) and another given to the University of Pennsylvania (ranked 14th) for winning the southeast region title. However, Penn declined their bid, allowing the Wolverines to sneak into nationals for the first time since 2002, although the trip ended quickly following losses to Massachusetts, Lindenwood and NMU. Still, Michigan's standard had been reset, and 2005 turned out to be the first of five straight trips to nationals, and 11 in 12 years through the 2015–16 season.
Subsequent seasons saw a lot of the same, as U-M finished second during the CCWHA regular season in three straight years from 2005–06 through 2006–08, and won exactly 18 games while playing for the CCWHA title in 2004–05, 2005–06 and 2007–08 (Michigan's ten appearances in the league championship game are a record, solidly ahead of Michigan State's seven, although the Wolverines have gone 2–8–0 in those contests). In 2008, U-M defeated MSU in the CCWHA playoff semifinals in dramatic fashion, with goaltender Maggie Wagner holding the Spartans to a single goal through the overtime period and stopping 4 of 5 shots in the shootout round to claim victory. In both 2005–06 and 2007–08, U-M advanced out of the pool round of the ACHA National Tournament but were defeated in the quarterfinals by, respectively, Rhode Island and Robert Morris (IL), two of the ACHA's powerhouses of the era. In 2007–08, Michigan finished with three All-Americans (Amy Cauzillo on the second team, Lauren Lobert and Maggie Wagner as honorable mentions) although Emily Nelson's arrival that year, which included a 23-goal freshman season, signaled a passing of the baton to the next generation of stars.
Blackburn Keeps The Beat Going (2008–2015)
In 2008–09, Rob Blackburn took over as head coach and his seven seasons in charge were marked by continuing success, as he led U-M to five winning records, six ACHA National Tournament appearances, and a pair of CCWHA championship games. As he began, much of the group that had fueled the Wolverines' mid-decade turnaround had moved on, but the squad quickly reloaded with players like Kristin Griebe, who arrived in 2009 and would go on to become Michigan's all-time leading scorer (in documented seasons) with 90 goals and 73 assists in 116 games. Beyond the point total, Griebe also achieved rarefied status in the accolade department, as she led U-M to a 19–8–4 mark (the team's best win total since 2001–02) and earned the school's second spot on the ACHA's All-American First Team, following Collier in 2000–01.
Blackburn proved adept as a recruiter, particularly in landing players who had begun their collegiate careers in NCAA Division III like Charlotte Hotaling (Manhattanville) and Monica Korzon (Plattsburgh State). Both Hotaling and Korzon arrived in Ann Arbor in 2011 and would be significant pieces of the team's core over the next couple years.
One of Michigan's best seasons came in 2014–15, a campaign that saw the Wolverines close the regular season with their highest-ever ACHA national ranking, third. A well-balanced squad featuring Jenna Trubiano, Kalli Bates, Jennifer Cusmano, Mercedes Reyes, Karrie Inman and Erin Gregoire made a spirited CCWHA tournament run that included overtime wins against eventual ACHA semifinalists Adrian (thanks to Trubiano's winner) and Grand Valley State (with Jessica Buckley the hero that time) before falling in the final to defending national champion Miami. Although the Wolverines ultimately bowed out of nationals in the pool round, it wasn't before one of the most stirring wins in recent program history. On March 5, 2015, in York, Pennsylvania, U-M trailed Minnesota 3–1 midway through the third period. Bates, with her team facing elimination, willed the game back by scoring twice in a 2:24 span to force overtime, where Gregoire cashed in a power play for the victory. However, that triumph would be one of only three ACHA nationals wins of the Blackburn era (one of which came post-elimination in 2013), against 15 losses.
Recent Seasons (2015–present) After Blackburn's departure following 2014–15, program founder McDowell stepped into the head coaching role and was then joined by Terry Mathews for one season. The result in 2015–16 was a somewhat uneven year epitomized by a pair of early upsets. The first, on October 4, 2015, saw an unheralded Davenport team undo 2–0 and 3–2 Michigan leads to win 4–3 behind Lexie Boydston's three-point morning, including a shorthanded game-winning goal for the Panthers' first-ever victory against their cross-state rivals. A more encouraging outcome for the Wolverines came just four days later when U-M toppled third-ranked Adrian on the road and in overtime. With Michigan trailing 2–1 in the game's dying moments, Cusmano pushed home a rebound with just one second showing on the clock to force the extra period. Then, 19 seconds from a tie, Sarah Lather potted the winner in support of Bailey Hamill's 31 saves.