In a stacked ECAC conference, Quinnipiac Women’s Ice Hockey held their own throughout the 2023-2024 season, achieving some of their largest margins of victory ever, but ultimately fell in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament, and failed to qualify for an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament.
Next year will surely be a rebuilding season, with some familiar faces, departures, and new additions. Here are the roster moves and transfer portal updates for the Quinnipiac Women’s Ice Hockey team.
Joining:
Jenna Donohue – Transfer from Dartmouth College (88 games played, 19 goals, 25 assists, 44 points)
Grad transfer, Jenna Donohue, will suit up with the Bobcats for the 2024-25 season. She was formerly a member of the Dartmouth Big Green.
Donohue scored seven, assisted 15, and collected 22 overall points in this past season. The forward has tallied 44 points in 88 games played for the Big Green. In her two games against the Bobcats last season, she had one goal and one assist, totaling for two points. She also had a .250 shooting percentage.
Donohue will be joining a depleted forward core affected greatly by the transfer portal.
Kaley Doyle – Transfer from Brown University (74 games played, 25-39-8, 2.28 GAA, .926 save %)
Kaley Doyle, the graduate transfer will join the Bobcats for the 2024-25 season. She played three seasons with the Brown Bears.
This past season Doyle put up a 2.25 goals against average and a .928 save percentage with an 11-15-3 overall record. She had most of the starts this year only sitting on the bench for three games. In Doyle’s last game with Brown, she recorded 50 saves in a 5-1 loss to Colgate.
Doyle will likely take over as the starting goalie with the departures of sixth-year grad Logan Angers, and first-year Lucy Phillips.
Felicia Frank – Incoming first-year goaltender (10 games played, 7-3-0, 1.80 GAA, .930 save %)
The Bobcats are adding a new netminder into the blue crease for the 2024-2025 season, as Felicia Frank, hailing from Sweden, will be heading to Hamden. Frank will join a goalie room with Graduate student Kaley Doyle and rising Junior Tatum Blacker.
Last year in the Swedish Professional League (SDHL), Frank put up a stat line of .930 save percentage, a 1.80 goals against average, with a 7-3-0 record in ten games played for Brynäs IF. Frank has also been a member of the Sweden U18 team, making six starts across two tournaments in the 2022-2023 season.
Ella Sennick – Incoming first-year defender (62 games played, 4 goals, 11 assists, 15 points)
Ella Sennick, Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania will head north on Route 95 up to the M&T Bank arena.
Sennick played her youth career with the Philadelphia Junior Flyers. The last two seasons she played for their 19U AAA team. She will now turn her focus to Hamden with hopes of an NCAA title.
This past season she scored four goals and 11 assists for 15 points in her 62 games. Sennick and her team recently went to the USA Hockey Nationals where her team lost in the semi-finals against Shattuck St. Mary’s (who went on to win the national title).
Avery Bairos – Incoming first-year forward (24 games played, 22 goals, 15 assists, 37 points)
Avery Bairos, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, will be joining the Bobcats for the 2024-2025 season.
Bairos played three years of youth hockey in the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League (SFMAAAHL), where she put up 22 goals and 15 assists for 37 points in 24 games. In her AAA career, Bairos has totaled 112 points through 84 games. Bairos will be hoping to make as much of an impact in Hamden.
Makayla Watson – Incoming first-year defender (29 games played, 10 goals, 41 assists, 51 points)
The Bobcats will be adding another International to the fold, as Canadian U18 World Junior, Makayla Watson of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
This season, Watson has been playing in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League U18(CSSHL), where she has 10 goals and 41 assists for 51 points in 29 games. In her World Juniors career, Watson has put up three points in three games.
Watson is heading east to Hamden to join the Bobcats for the 2024-25 season.
Aynsley D’Ottavio – Incoming first-year defender (41 games played, 7 goals, 23 assists, 30 points)
The Bobcats will continue to bolster their defensive core with Chilliwack, British Columbia native Aynsley D’Ottavio, who played in the Ontario Women’s Hockey League (OWHL) during the 2023-24 season with the Etobicoke Dolphins.
She played in 41 games and scored seven goals, along with 23 assists for 30 points. She was the second-highest defensive point-getter on her team that had an astounding record of 40-0-0-1.
The defenseman will look to take on a similar role that Kate Reilly had this past season, as more of an offensive-style defenseman while also being sound defensively.
Taylor Brueske – Incoming first-year forward (28 games played, 13 goals, 21 assists, 34 points)
Quinnipiac will add to their forward core with Taylor Brueske who hails from Fargo, North Dakota.
Brueske attended Moorhead High in Minnesota and tallied 99 points in her four years playing high school ice hockey for the Spuds. Moorhead finished the 2023-24 season with a record of 24-3-1 falling in the Section Finals of the Minnesota Women’s High School Hockey Tournament.
Although the Spud’s best season record was last year, Brueske and her teammates did end up becoming Section Champions the season prior with a final record of 22-9-0. That season would go down as the highest that Moorhead High has ever been ranked, being named the fifth best team in the state of Minnesota.
Bryn Prier – Incoming first-year forward (42 games played, 27 goals, 57 assists, 84 points)
The Bobcats recruit another forward from the Ontario Women’s Hockey League’s (OWHL) U22 Division in Bryn Prier from the Burlington Barracudas AA.
Prier has played for the Barracuda for the past two years but hails not from the north in Canada, but from the south in Jupiter, Florida. She has accumulated 144 points in 85 games played and sat third among her teammates and fifth in points among all OWHL players last season.
In the 2022-23 season, Prier played against current Bobcat forward Kahlen Lamarche, who sat second in points in the OWHL last season with the Mississauga Hurricanes U22 team.
Departing:
Lucy Phillips – first-year goaltender
First-year Lucy Phillips is hitting the transfer portal after not getting a start this year. The
Upper Tantallon, Nova Scotia native came into Hamden with high expectations. She played for Team Canada U18 Women’s National Team in 2022 where she won a gold medal.
During the 2022-23 season, she played with the Cambridge Rivulettes of the Ontario Women’s Hockey League where she put up a 2.30 goals against average and a .920 save percentage in 11 games.
Nina Steiguaf – senior forward (37 games played, 16 goals, 16 assists, 32 points)
Nina Steigauf will be transferring to Minnesota Duluth for her graduate year. The Oakdale, Minnesota native, is heading to her home state for her graduate year of college hockey.
Steigauf totaled 16 goals and 16 assists, for 32 points in 37 games this season. She also had four game-winning goals for the Bobcats.
In her Quinnipiac career, she scored 41 goals and picked up 42 assists, for 83 career points in a Bobcat uniform.
Mallory Mauracher – junior forward (11 games played, 1 goal)
Junior forward Mallory Mauracher is transferring out of Hamden. The Dublin, Ohio native struggled during her time with the Bobcats.
Throughout her three years, she dressed in 21 games and recorded two goals. She scored her first collegiate goal on October 8, 2022, in a 7-1 win against St. Anselm
Sami Bowlby – sophomore forward (23 games played, 1 assist)
Burnsville, Minnesota native Sami Bowlby will be leaving the Bobcats after two seasons playing 32 games. She recorded one assist in a 12-1 win over Post University. Bowlby will be joining the Sacred Heart Pioneers at Sacred Heart University.
Kate Villeneuve – senior forward (34 games played, 3 assists)
Senior Kate Villeneuve is leaving the Bobcats as she has entered the transfer portal.
She put up 3 assists in the 34 games she played in the 2023-24 season. She scored her first collegiate goal and her only goal against LIU in an 11-0 win on January 17, 2021.
Throughout her four years, she played 81 games, scored 1 goal and 3 assists for 4 points
Veronica Bac – junior forward (36 games played, 7 goals, 4 assists, 11 points)
Junior forward Veronica Bac has entered the transfer portal and is leaving Hamden.
In her three years with the Bobcats, Bac has 14 goals, and 4 assists for 18 points in 111 games.
Madison Chantler – sophomore forward (37 games played, 9 goals, 8 assists, 17 points)
Madison Chantler is putting her name in the transfer portal after two years with the Bobcats.
She was a crucial part of the forward core this season recording nine goals, and eight assists, for 17 points in 37 games.
In the ECAC Hockey playoffs this past season she recorded three goals, in the three games the team played before being knocked out by the Cornell Big Red.
Returning:
Maddy Samoskevich – Returning for graduate year (130 games played, 11 goals, 51 assists, 62 points)
Defenseman Maddy Samoskevich will be returning to Hamden for a fifth year. The defenseman was a big part of the offense throughout the 2023-24 season and will look to continue to be for the Bobcats in the 2024-25 season.
Samoskevich put up two goals and 19 assists for 21 points in 37 games during the 2023-2024 season.
In her 130 games played throughout her career, Samoskevich has collected 62 points from 11 goals and 51 assists.
Sophie Urban – Returning for graduate year (128 games played, 6 goals, 20 assists, 26 points)
Forward Sophie Urban is staying in Hamden for a fifth year. The forward helped the team throughout the 2023-24 season and will look to continue for the Bobcats in the 2024-25 season.
Urban scored 2 goals and 10 assists for 12 points in 37 games in the 2023-24 season.
In her career at Quinnipiac, Urban has helped the team scoring 6 goals and collecting 20 assists in 128 games, while also playing sound defensively for the Bobcats.
Kendall Cooper – Returning for graduate year (121 games played, 26 goals, 64 assists, 90 points)
Assistant Captain Kendall Cooper will be staying put in Hamden for a fifth year in a blue and gold Bobcat uniform. The offensive defenseman will be a crucial part of the team’s offensive production for the 2024-25 season.
Cooper finished third in points this season behind graduate student Kate Reilly and first-year Kahlen Lamarche, with 11 goals and 22 assists, for a total of 33 points in 37 games.
Throughout Cooper’s career with Quinnipiac, she has put up stellar numbers. In her 121 games, she scored 26 goals, along with 64 assists for 90 total points.
Last updated May 20 at 2 p.m.
