Rouge Remnants: Legacies of Sweaters Selected

A truism in Cornell hockey fandom is that Mike Schafer will implore each incoming freshman to research the best player to have worn his selected number. This exercise serves the dual purpose of inculcating a sense of pride and belonging, and setting the tone for expectations of hockey for the men who wear the carnelian-and-white sweater. It is this rite connecting the historic to the modern in an unbroken, living chain that sets Cornell apart and above other programs in its reverence of history.

The history of the women's hockey team at Cornell is no less historic. Members of the Lady Rouge carry the weight of the history of the second-oldest women's team in the country when they pull on their carnelian-and-white sweaters. The female skaters for the Big Red have known several epochs of success and dominance. There is no indication that Doug Derraugh, a champion who conceives the history of Cornell hockey as a united narrative, gives an assignment to his new players that mirrors the task that Schafer lays before his new charges. This writer sees no reason why Derraugh could not.

The freshmen selected their numbers several weeks ago. If they were required to look into the history of their respective numbers, here are some of the greatest players whose legacies each may have chosen to honor.

Marlene Boissonnault, goaltender, #1

Fans and fortune have a habit of honoring those players who choose to merge the traditions of both the men's and women's programs at Cornell. One only needs to regard the rafters to see how the choice of #1 bridges this gap. Marlene Boissonnault is not alone in trying to channel the legacy of Ken Dryden for the Lady Rouge. Amanda Mazzotta in choosing #29, Dryden's number for the Montreal Canadiens, struck a new legacy and welded it to another. Amelia Boughn did the same when she elected to take Mazzotta's number. However, Ken Dryden is not the only famous wearer of #1. A legend of the women's team is Sarah Mott. Mott backstopped Cornell to half of its six Ivy League tournament championships. She did so when Coach Bill Duthie remarked that the conference "was a lot closer than in the past." Immense resolve in tight games characterized Mott's game in an era when Cornell was not accustomed to close contests. She outworked even Cornell's most talented out-of-conference opponents. Mott was a mainstay from her freshman season. The freshman goaltender made 55 saves in the 1979 Ivy League tournament to secure the Big Red's fourth consecutive playoff title. She was a constant. As a senior, Sarah Mott drove a seven-game winning streak during which Cornell allowed only nine goals. Cornell earned a berth to the 1980 EAIAW tournament, one of the precursors to the women's Frozen Four, in front of the stellar play of a sophomore Mott. Sarah Mott's legacy is best understood in the third tournament title that she brought the Big Red. Brown and Cornell were deadlocked in the 1981 Ivy League tournament final. The heroine of overtime was Mott. She held the Pandas scoreless after 100 minutes of game play. Her then-expected transcendent play delivered Cornell's sixth consecutive tournament title embodying a feat that no team has rivaled.

Diana Buckley, forward, #19

Divining the unquestionable legacy of some sweaters does not require rummaging through dust-laden laundry to find an appropriate answer. Diana Buckley will be picking her jersey off of the hook of her locker stall mere moments after its greatest former wearer hung it there. Jill Saulnier was a special player. Buckley, to honor the legacy of Saulnier, will need to bring more than statistical contributions. That is certain. However, what about those statistics? Saulnier never allowed her offensive production to drop outside of the ranks of top three point producers on her teams. She played alongside legends of the game like Brianne Jenner and Rebecca Johnston while maintaining such levels of productivity. Regular production became the expectation from Saulnier's play. Extraordinary production is what will make her legacy endure the test of time. The tenacious forward touched the puck for both of Cornell's goals in the 2013 ECAC Hockey Championship Final against Harvard. Winning ECAC Hockey championships, something that she did twice in her four-year career, was not her only form of spirited contribution in the Red's time of year. Her stick rifled the game-tying goal against Mercyhurst in the quarterfinals of the 2013 NCAA tournament putting the Big Red one step closer to another Frozen-Four berth. In the historic 8-7 triple-overtime contest against Boston University in the national tournament with a trip to the 2012 Frozen Four on the line, only Rebecca Johnston contributed more points in packing Cornell's bags for Duluth. Johnston required a hat trick and more to best Saulnier's four points. The playoffs became Jill's stage. Her senior season did not witness her bringing a third Eastern championship to East Hill. She grappled and battled even more restlessly to achieve that goal. Saulnier scored no fewer than a goal in each of her senior playoff contests. For the clash with the Red's foil, the Crimson, she scored twice in the 2015 ECAC Hockey Championship Final. The senior scorer produced 1.25 goals per game in the postseason. In the era of the Corsi craze, Saulnier always put the ice on a decided incline in favor of the Red. It was never long until #19 in carnelian and white raged into the opposition's zone. It was this all-consuming blaze that ignited her team that became the legacy of #19.

Pippy Gerace, forward, #15

Pippy Gerace, a native of Upstate New York, the Southern Tier to be more precise, chose wisely in selecting her numerical adornment. Generations of great players from Upstate New York have worn the carnelian-and-white #15. Abolition and voting rights are not the only things that would be very different without the strength of ambition, character, and intellect of Upstate women. Modern competitive women's hockey at the collegiate level would not have its current form but for the charismatic and passionate leadership of hockey-playing Cornellians from Upstate New York. Diane Griffin from Syracuse was an early leader who cast this mold in wearing #15 for the Lady Rouge in the late 1970s. This noble trend far from ended there. The Big Red was dominant in the Ivy League during its tournament era from 1975 through 1982. After the 1982 postseason, the Ivy League championship was awarded to the League's regular-season victor. Melissa Gambrell, or Missy as she was called, from Ithaca ushered in Cornell's next great era of supremacy. Gambrell was known as the peak performer at Lynah Rink. As a freshman, the Central New Yorker opened scoring in the home contest against Brown that decided Cornell's playoff fate. Sending the Big Red to the playoffs left Missy Gambrell unsated. She shone brightly in the 1989 Ivy League tournament when she inspired Cornell's first playoff victory in three years. Living under the oppressive three-year reign of historically coeducation-resistant Harvard unsettled Gambrell. Melissa Gambrell factored largely in inspiring the Big Red's regular-season sweep of the Crimson during the 1989-90 season. It was Cornell's first such sweep of Harvard since the 1982-83 season when Digit Degidio and Diane Dillon, national phenoms, represented Cornell. Reclamation of lost greatness from the 1970s and 1980s in the 1989-90 season was not self-evident until its February 18, 1990 defeat of Brown. A nine-year drought ended. Gambrell and her Cornell squad reaffirmed the Big Red's Eastern dominance with Cornell's first perfect 10-0-0 Ivy League championship.

Micah Hart, defenseman, #8

It is difficult for players to leave a mark in the annals of a historic program. Few players manage to achieve that feat in the four years that they are afforded now. The task was far more onerous when given but three years to script a myth. One would have to become an instant impact player whose influence on the program was undeniable to every onlooker to achieve the status of legend in that era. That did not stop the founding greats of the Big Red including Sunshine Lorenz, Cyndy Schlaepfer, and Cindy Warren. Schlaepfer, like incoming freshman Micah Hart, wore #8. Hart in her raw skill and aptitude for leadership, exemplified in her serving as captain of the under-18 iteration of Team Canada, can be such a player even in this modern era. In fact, in wearing the number of Cyndy Schlaepfer and Jess Campbell, it may be demanded of her. Schlaepfer may have had only three seasons but that did not stop her from winning three championships for the Big Red. The now-legendary center charged Cornell through the first three postseason tournaments in collegiate women's ice hockey. Schlaepfer electrified crowds from the regular season through championship rounds in her junior season when she alone bested opposing netminders 46 times. Breaking the 200-point career mark in three season did prove too difficult. The high-scoring center donned the captain's C during her senior season. Her last point of her career paced her to 199 points over a mere three seasons. Those 199 points place Cyndy Schlaepfer fifth all time in point production for all Cornell skaters. Schlaepfer is the only player from that era whose career point totals break into the top five. In the Big Red's fomenting era of dominance, when three-year eligibility was the rule, Schlaepfer was the leading point producer and goal scorer with 199 points and 95 goals. The famous Red center set an unbroken record for number of goals in one contest. Schlaepfer deluged her opponents in one contest with seven goals. In Cyndy Schlaepfer's run of three consecutive Ivy League tournament championships, she was a major contributor in the Big Red's average of nearly seven goals per postseason contest. Red skaters outscored opponents 40 goals for to 11 goals allowed. Captain Schlaepfer reveled in winning her ultimate Ivy League championship in front of adoring fans at Lynah Rink. A perfect capstone to an incomprehensible career.

Christian Higham, forward, #27

The modern and current era of Cornell's preeminence in hockey did not begin in 2009 or 2010. It began a few years earlier when players of ardor and tenacity began to fill the recently renovated locker rooms of Lynah Rink. Christian Higham will don this mantle of responsibility of accepting nothing but the best for her alma mater and program when she wears the number of Karlee Overguard. The propensity of Karlee Overguard not to accept the status quo was incumbent in her first playoff performance. The freshman forward was unafraid to score what seemed like the go-ahead goal against the Harvard Crimson in the 2008 ECAC Hockey Championship Quarterfinals. It was just the beginning. Karlee Overguard was a tenacious clutch player who caught the eye of fans and ire of opponents. Her design on making Cornell great again met real action on the ice. Two years after she scored that would-have-been go-ahead goal against Harvard at Bright Hockey Center, Overguard scored a shorthanded goal against the Crimson in the Big Red's first appearance in the NCAA tournament. That goal was a critical facet of a 6-2 humbling of Cornell's loathsome foe. Her legacy was not conterminous with revenge against Harvard. Laura Fortino scored Cornell's first-ever goal in the Frozen Four shorthanded. An assist from Karlee Overguard was essential to that goal's realization. Catherine White tucked away the game winner against Mercyhurst in overtime of the 2010 Frozen Four Semifinal. It was the game-tying goal from Karlee Overguard that afforded Catherine White that distinction of sending the Big Red to the national-title game. The Red looked to Melanie Jue and Karlee Overguard in the waning minutes of regulation of the 2010 Frozen Four Final against Minnesota-Duluth to extend the season. The two obliged. The next season, the winningest season in Cornell hockey history, it was Karlee Overguard who decided in the 2011 ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals that the Engineers of RPI were not going to sour the Red's bid for an Eastern repeat. Overguard bested Sonja van der Bliek in overtime to ignite Cornell's playoff run. After the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons wrapped, Karlee Overguard reflected "I’m so proud of where our team has come from when [Amber and I] came in freshman year and winning four games or something like that to now being in the Frozen Four and having the season we did. I think it’s just amazing where we’ve come from and I’m really proud of our team." The legacy of #27 is putting Cornell on surer footing.

Lenka Serdar, forward, #17

Playing alongside legends in their own era is no small task. It requires considerable skill and even firmer resolve to make a mark and become a known and revered commodity under those conditions. It is this desire to carve a legacy and be celebrated that should inspire the career of Lenka Serdar in the iconic carnelian-and-white jersey. The sweater is being handed off to this talented Bay Stater directly from its most famous and influential wearer, Emily Fulton. The epoch of Emily Fulton corresponded with the sagas of Brianne Jenner, Rebecca Johnston, and Jill Saulnier. It took the rest of the nation a few seasons to realize that Fulton was of the same timber. The Lynah Faithful had a much smoother learning curve about this reality. Emily Fulton made it easier for them. In a reality that was not entirely apparent contemporaneously, Fulton had a propensity for deflating Harvard in the playoffs. The 2013 ECAC Hockey Championship Final at Lynah Rink hosted Cornell and Harvard. Then-sophomore Emily Fulton seamlessly assisted on the championship-clinching goal for the Big Red in the final two minutes of the contest. The archnemeses met a season later in Potsdam. This time, the setting was the semifinal round. Fulton's play was little distinguished. Harvard landed the first blow. It was the goal-scoring phenom whose play that season began to garner deserved national notice who answered. The game became a ten-goal slugfest. Two goals from Emily Fulton, including an insurance goal, secured the Big Red's place on the right side of that decision. The postseason date with Harvard in Fulton's senior season did not go as the previous two had. However, Fulton, always a player whose effort matched her considerable talent, contributed a point on each of the Red's three goals against the Crimson in the Eastern final. Emily Fulton always aimed to get better for her team and program. Each season, the star forward improved her goal production from the last. The same could not be said for her equally legendary linemates. Such is a testament to the remnants of her legacy that will remain with #17. Fulton, Jenner, and Saulnier forever are an intricately interwoven triplet within the ballad of Cornell hockey. The Lynah Faithful will remember most the hard work of Jenner and the fiery temperament of Saulnier. Fulton will be remembered most for her hauntingly uncanny natural goal-scoring ability and knack for always impressing her adoring fans.