Heading into 2025, the U.S. ladies’s nationwide area hockey crew will likely be seeking to win its means again into the FIH Professional League after having been relegated within the final cycle.
The crew seeking to make it again goes to present us a take a look at the sort of crew prone to kind within the runup to the 2028 Olympics. Will it’s a technical facet, a fast facet, or a gaggle of gamers with various abilities?
Our first take a look at the way forward for the U.S. crew got here out at present in a roster for a tour of New Zealand, one which can embody a handful of video games and two internationals in opposition to the Black Sticks Girls.
For me, probably the most attention-grabbing title on the U.S. touring roster is Makenna Webster, who’s at present on the roster of the Ohio State ladies’s ice hockey crew. She is a dynamic athlete who was one of many causes the Buckeyes have been such a enjoyable area hockey crew to look at final fall.
The tour of New Zealand takes place within the coronary heart of the ice hockey season. The times of the 2 official area hockey fixtures at New Zealand, Jan. 17 and 18, coincide with Ohio State’s collection at Minnesota-Duluth. It might show to be a important collection within the 2024-25 season within the runup to the postseason. Ohio State and Duluth are fourth and second within the WCHA desk, inside three factors of one another in pursuit of Wisconsin. All three are within the high 4 of the present U.S. School Hockey On-line ladies’s ballot.
I don’t suppose the U.S. selectors would have taken Webster if she weren’t going to suit into the plans of the sector hockey crew in upcoming tournaments.
You may say the identical for gamers corresponding to Jans Croon, Lucy Adams, Sanne Carls, and Katie Dixon. However I believe the gamers to look at, espcially throughout the entrance line, are Phia Gladieux and Ryleigh Heck, who’re two confirmed dynamic scorers.
I additionally suppose one participant who can do loads of good for her standing throughout the U.S. program is Northwestern goalkeeper Annabel Skubicz. She was excellent in her most up-to-date outings in NCAA Division I, and I believe she will likely be given each probability of creating the roster for the FIH Nations’ Cup Match in Chile.
I believe one other participant to maintain your eye on is Cassie Sumfest, who has come off a 12 months’s rehabilitation from knee surgical procedure to make this 22-woman roster. Relying on what occurs in New Zealand in January,
I believe it is going to be very attention-grabbing to see what sort of crew types for the Nations’ Cup out of the touring crew and the ten gamers talked about on at present’s USA Subject Hockey information launch who have been “strategically not thought-about” for the tour.
