Hall of Fame
The 2010-11 Norwich University women's ice hockey team claimed the program's first national championship in just its fourth season of existence with a 5-2 win over RIT in Rochester, N.Y. in the National Championship game. The Cadets defeated Gustavus Adolphus, 5-4, the night prior in the national semifinals to advance to the title game.
The Cadets finished with a 25-4-1 record and made their second of three straight national championship game appearances. Norwich won its first ECAC East regular season title, finishing with an unbeaten league record of 17-0-1. Despite falling to Manhattanville in the ECAC East Championship game at Kreitzberg Arena, Norwich received an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament and a first-round bye.
Sophie Leclerc '10 was named the ECACÂ East Player of the Year and an AHCA First Team All-American after leading the Cadets with 26 goals and 28 assists for 54 points.
Head coach Mark Bolding earned his second American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) National Coach of the Year award.
"Even though we were a young team in just our fourth season, we had gained some very solid playoff and NCAA experience in the previous two seasons," Bolding said. "This group had exactly the right balance of energy, commitment, teamwork, and skill that enabled us to put together another terrific regular season, and then execute two great game plans at the NCAA Final Four against Gustavus Adolphus and a powerhouse RIT team in the finals. From the coaching staff to all the players, this was a very close knit team who, beyond the competition, just had fun playing and growing together in what was the really early stages of our program. To look back now it's truly a credit to all of our players, from freshmen to seniors, who bought into their roles and sacrificed daily for the good of the team. The end result was magical and this group cemented Norwich women's hockey as one of the premier programs in the nation."
Julie Fortier '12, Melissa Rundlett '12, Jillayne DeBus '13 and Renee Lortie all had over 30 points on the season.
Lortie earned ECAC East Rookie of the Year honors and was named to the All-Rookie team after leading all conference freshmen in scoring.
Leclerc was joined on the ECAC East All-Conference First Team by Sarianne Lynn '12 and Amanda Wilks '12. Fortier was named to the ECAC East All-Conference Second Team. Lortie was joined on the All-Rookie team by Marie-Philip Poulin '14 and Brittany Sharman '14.
DeBus and Cindy Fortin '11 earned ECAC East Honorable Mention team honors.
