Nov. 23, 2005

By Elliot Olshansky

CSTV.com

Around 6:30 last Saturday evening, Yale coach Hilary Witt caught up with freshman forward Maggie Westfal and filled her in on the team's practice schedule, dress code for road games, and a few other bits of information every freshman athlete needs to know.  Nothing too exciting.

Except, of course, that Yale had just played its eighth game of the season, and Westfal had scored a goal in the Bulldogs' 4-2 loss for Dartmouth.

Then again, hearing about practice schedules and dress codes after a game was hardly the most unusual thing about Westfal's weekend.  Westfal and teammate Crysti Howser had a rather unique itinerary for Friday and Saturday, which looked a little something like this:

Friday, 7:30 p.m., (Notre Dame, Ind.) - Take the field as starters for Yale against Notre Dame for a third-round game in the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament at the Irish's Alumni Field .

Friday, 9:30 p.m. - Leave the field after seeing the Irish end Yale's tournament run with a 5-2 win.

Saturday, 6:00 a.m. - Wake up, finish packing, and get on bus from South Bend to Chicago.

Saturday, 10:00 a.m. (Chicago, Ill.) - Take off from Chicago's Midway Airport, headed to Hartford, Connecticut.

Saturday, 1:00 p.m. (Hartford, Conn.) - Board bus at Bradley International Airport

Saturday, 2:15 p.m. (New Haven, Conn.) - Return to Yale campus.

Saturday, 3:22 p.m. - Take the ice for warm-ups with the Yale women's hockey team at Ingalls Rink.

Saturday, 4:00 p.m. - Face off against Dartmouth in an ECACHL and Ivy League game.

Are you tired yet?

Of course, little down-time between games can often be the standard for college athletes, especially in the ECACHL, when a typical women's team schedule involves one game at 7 p.m. on Friday and another at 4 p.m. on Saturday.  However, travel across three states usually doesn't figure into the equation.  And of course, soccer and hockey aren't exactly the same thing; the change in speed alone requires a major adjustment.  So, the question arises: why would anyone attempt this feat?

It didn't take much convincing. 

"We decided that we were going to play," Westfal said of the Dartmouth-Yale game, "just because we could."

They could, and they did, which was a welcome development for Witt, whose team went 2-3-1 to start the season, scoring just over two goals per game.

"I knew they were going to play," Witt said. "We had already talked about it before the soccer game, so that was no question.  A lot of that was trying to generate some goals."

Westfal delivered in that department, staking the Bulldogs to a 1-0 lead at the 9:21 mark of the first period, coming in alone on a breakaway and avoiding the pursuit of Dartmouth's Emily Nerland to shoot the puck past goalkeeper Carli Clemis. 

"It was relieving," Westfal said of her goal. "It kind of took all the pressure that I had built up to the game off a little bit."

While Westfal's goal helped alleviate her mental pressure, the physical aspect was a bit more of a challenge. 

"Going from soccer to hockey is a big change," Westfal said.  "It's a different-paced game.  Your `legs' are completely different muscles.  It was hard, but I've got to get used to it."

Howser also felt the strain of her dual-sport weekend.

"I think, conditioning-wise, I'm perfectly fine," Howser said after the game against Dartmouth. "The only difference was [Friday], I played a 90-minute game, so my legs are just beat and dead. I'll get back into the swing of things pretty quickly, I hope, just through practice and stuff."

Practice time will also help Howser and Westfal get the hang of Yale's systems, which they knew little of as they took the ice against Dartmouth.

"We came in here not knowing anything," Westfal said, "but we'll slowly learn the systems of the team, and hopefully get back into it."

"They just came into systems," Witt said.  "For kids who have no idea what we do - and they got, pretty much, a brief lesson today - they did a great job.  They didn't go out on the power play, they didn't penalty kill.  They didn't go out in situations like that, which both of those kids are capable of.  I thought they did what we asked them to do for us, and they did a good job."

Not that a "good job" is enough for either Howser or Westfal.  After all, they just won an Ivy League title with the soccer team, and would like to bring a bit more hardware to New Haven.

"I definitely have a lot to pick up and improve on," Westfal said, "but hopefully, over time, it'll get better."

"I've wanted to get back on the ice for a long time," Howser said. "Obviously, it's hard after playing a game yesterday, but it's nice to just be out there, even though I couldn't play my best. I'm ready to move on now, and focus fully on hockey, and do this to the best of my ability."

As Howser and Westfal shift their focus from soccer to hockey, Witt hopes that their soccer success will rub off on the hockey Bulldogs. 

"They had a great soccer season," Witt said. "I think beating Duke last week, for them, was unbelievable. They have a winning spirit about them right now.  They came off a very successful team, and I hope they bring that to our team. It'll be great."

Great for the Bulldogs, perhaps, but if Witt, Howser and Westfal have their way about it, not for their ECACHL foes.