History continues to be made for the women’s hockey team as it enters its first ever NCAA Division I Frozen Four. The first match will take place tonight at 5 p.m. on neutral ice in Minneapolis, Minn. as Cornell takes on the No. 1 seed Mercyhurst in the semifinals.Who dat?: The women’s hockey team has ascended to the top of the NCAA rankings by remaking itself into a squad built around young talent and a strong group of returning upperclassmen. - By: Tina Chou

The Mercyhurst Lakers (30-2-3) have the top-scoring offense and the third best scoring defense in the nation, and will certainly be a challenge for the Red (20-8-6) to take down. In the first match-up between these two teams back in October, Mercyhurst came out strong in the first two games of Cornell’s season, sweeping the series and adding to an impressive 11-0-1 all-time series lead over the Red. The Red’s plans on taking down the Lakers’ attack includes being faster on the ice.

“They’re really quick on their transitions,” said senior co-captain Liz Zorn. “When they take the puck they go the other way really fast so [we plan on] being ready to play two-way hockey –– to be on offense and be able to back check on defense right away.”

The Red has come a far way since its first encounters with Mercyhurst this season, and has truly learned to play together as a team. There is a lot of talent on this team ranging from great performances by freshmen defenders Laura Fortino and Lauriane Rougeau to an enormous improvement by senior forward Melanie Jue, who is the top senior scorer for the Red. Since everybody has had chances to build up team chemistry since the first Red vs. Lakers encounters this year, it will definitely be a whole different game.

Together, Cornell players have been working on specific aspects of their game all year long that has brought them to this point.

“One thing we focused on this year was our aggressiveness and just working hard each and every shift with everybody knowing what they have to do and doing it,” Fortino said when discussing key strategies that the Red must stick to in order to come out on top.

She added that since it is the first Frozen Four for the women –– the second for any women’s team at Cornell in all of the university’s athletic history –– she knows that the team will focus on not getting distracted by all the media coverage and banquets they will face in Minnesota and instead just make sure to concentrate on its game.

“I think that’s the biggest challenge for a team that’s going there for the first time –– to be able to focus on what you’re really out there for: to play a hockey game, hopefully two hockey games,” said head coach Doug Derraugh ’91.

Looking at the composition of Mercyhurst’s team, its roster contains the names of the leading three scorers in the nation, including finalist for the Patty Kazmaeir award, junior forward Vicki Bendus. However, the strength of the Lakers extends all the way back to the goal line and is not restricted to just the first line of offense.

“They’ve got the three ‘superstars’ but then you look at their next two lines too, and they’re just dangerous … you don’t be the No. 1 seed in the country unless you’ve got a balanced attack,” Derraugh said.

If the team successfully gets past Mercyhurst’s attack tonight, it will move on to the national championship game against the winner of the other semifinals –– either Minnesota or Minnesota-Duluth –– at 1 p.m. on Sunday.