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The Minnesota Women's Hockey team announced their captains for the 2014-15 season last week. Though they lost senior Amanda Kessel for the season due to lingering concussion issues, they team will still have both senior leadership and Olympic experience.
The two captains are both seniors. Defenseman Rachel Ramsey was the 2014 WCHA Defensive Player of the Year, and was the second in the country in scoring as a defenseman. She had 12 goals and 31 assists in 2013-14. She was named an All-American and will begin her senior season #5 on the All-Time Gopher defenseman scoring list with 97 career points. She will need 49 this season to break the record of 146 held by former All-American and current US National Team member Megan Bozak.
The second captain is senior forward Rachael Bona. Bona was a top-ten finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Awar as the best player in women's college hockey last season. She finished third in the nation in scoring with 61 points, including 23 goals. Bona has 108 career points and can reach the Top Ten all-time in Gopher history with 51 this season.
The two assistant captains being both a mix of senior leadership, and Olympic experience. Senior Meghan Lorence recorded a career high 35 points last season for the Gophers, and led the team with seven game-winning-goals. Sophomore Lee Stecklein is the second assistant captain. Stecklein did not play for the Gophers in 2013-14 as she was a member of the US Olympic Team that won the silver medal in Sochi. In her freshman season she tallied 12 points.
The Gopher women will start their season Friday October 3rd at home again Penn State at Ridder Arena.