For the second year in a row, The Sun’s Female Athlete of the Year is a member of the women’s hockey team. Last year’s winner — Izzy Daniel ’24 — was an incredible individual talent and a bridge between the pre-pandemic success and the post-pandemic rebuild of the program. Like Daniel, Rory Guilday ’25 was instrumental in rebuilding Cornell’s women’s hockey program to a place of excellence. Unlike Daniel, Guilday remained long enough to see the Red return to college hockey’s promised land: the Frozen Four.
For Cornell, the 2024-2025 season was a historic one. The team won its fifth ECAC title, made its fifth Frozen Four appearance, and set a women’s hockey attendance record at Lynah Rink.
“[At the ECAC] championship we had a spectacular crowd, and I remember having chills the entire time, from when we first stepped on ice through the national anthem when everyone yelled ‘Red,’” Guilday said. “I think honestly, maybe I got a little teary eyed.”
The Red’s impressive season came five years after the cancellation of the 2020 National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament while the squad was slated as the top seed and four years after the Ivy League missed the entirety of the 2020-2021 season. There may be no player who better represents the post-pandemic resurgence of the women’s hockey program at Cornell than Guilday.
When Guilday first stepped foot on campus, little remained of the impressive 2019-2020 team.
“It was a really, really young, inexperienced team because of the loss of the [COVID-19] year and … I think the team we had at that point there was only a few girls — a handful — who had actually played in college games before that season,” Guilday said. “We had a big freshman class, I think 11 or 12 of us … It was chaos.”
Making matters worse, the 2022 Winter Olympics were held during Guilday’s freshman year, meaning head coach Doug Derraugh ’91 was missing for stretches of the season while coaching for Team Canada. Despite Cornell’s mediocre record (14-14-2, 12-8-2 ECAC), what Guilday dubbed a “rebuilding year” triumphed in setting up the team for future success.
“We all kind of took on the learning curve together, and did what we could do for that year and we all learned a lot,” said Guilday. “It took trial and error, and rebuilding this team back up … it was for the people in that room and for no one else. We wanted to get better, and we did each year. I think that's because of the people we had in the locker room and our amazing coaches that guided us in the right direction, and we eventually made it.”
Make it they did. After finishing sixth in the ECAC during the 2021-2022 regular season, Guilday and the Red finished fifth, then fourth, in the following two years. During these three seasons Guilday was excellent, racking up 43 points and twice finishing second on the team in blocks. While her sophomore campaign was shortened due to injury, Guilday played in 29 and 32 games her freshman and junior seasons respectively, earning All-Ivy honors in both years.
Then came the 2024-2025 season.
It’s no coincidence that what makes Guilday such a special player is almost identical to what propelled this year’s team to greatness: gritty lockdown defense, timely scoring and a close bond.
For both Guilday and Cornell, the defense comes first. This summer, Guilday will be a top pick in the Professional Women’s Hockey League draft because of her defense prowess. At 5’ 11’’, the Minnesota native terrorizes forwards with her physical defensive playstyle, while also being able to keep her head up to close down passing and shooting lanes.
“She sees the game really well, and she’s a big strong girl,” said senior defender Ashley Messier. “She’s tall, powerful …. She uses her size to her advantage, she’s just so consistently a shutdown defender.”
Unsurprisingly, Guilday fits in well with Derraugh’s defense-oriented coaching style, and both she and her team dominated on that side of the ice her senior year.
“We know how good each of our players are, and we just had confidence in [the] fact [that] we had each other’s back, and we prided ourselves on defense this year as a whole,” Guilday said. “That was our coach’s goal, and our goal as a team, was to be the best team defensively, and I feel like we showed up and showed out for that.”
“Showed up and showed out” might be an understatement. In Guilday’s final season, the Red allowed the second fewest goals in the NCAA, tallied the fourth-most shutouts (10) and earned the fifth-best penalty kill percentage. Guilday was excellent on an individual level as well, being named to the All-Ivy first team and All-ECAC third team.
For both Guilday and Cornell, defensive skill didn’t come at the cost of offense. Despite her reputation as a shutdown defender, oftentimes the first thing Guilday’s teammates want to talk about is her shot.
“She can shoot better than any female hockey player I’ve ever seen,” Messier said.
“She has an absolute rocket of a shot,” said senior forward Gabbie Rud.
Sophomore goaltender Annelies Bergmann dubbed Guilday’s slapshot the “hardest shot in the ECAC.”
In fact, the power play unit had an entire play built around the biblical power of her shot.
“One of our plays, we called it the ‘Red Sea’ because you just gave her the puck and she would just wind up and everyone would get out of the way because her shot’s so hard,” Rud said.
While Guilday’s senior season offensive stats don’t necessarily jump off the page at five goals and four assists, her timing proved crucial for Cornell. On a team whose offense motto could be summed up as “any player on any night,” Guilday fit right in, with all five of her goals coming against the four ECAC teams that spent the season battling Cornell atop the conference standings. Her biggest game of the season came on January 10th on the road against then-No. 5 Colgate, when she scored both goals in a 2-1 win to snap a seven-game road losing streak against the Raiders.
But beyond results on the rink, what made this season so special for Guilday and her teammates was the team’s bond.
“There are so many incredible people here who want what’s best for you and want to help you grow and see you thrive … I’m going to miss these people so, so, so much,” Guilday said. “They mean the world to me, and I will always be grateful to them.”
While leaving Cornell will be bittersweet for Guilday, her future is bright. After graduating from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences with a degree in psychology, Guilday is nearly certain to be picked in this summer’s PWHL draft and join the six Cornellians already playing in the league.
“I’m no stranger to hard work here at Cornell, and I think that’s going to help me a lot in the PWHL,” Guilday said. “It’s a fast, physical game there and it’s obviously professional hockey with the best players in the world, and I think that I’m well prepared because of what coach [Derraugh] has taught me and what we’ve been through as a team.”
“She’s gonna excel at the next level in the PWHL,” Rud said. “I can’t wait to watch her, especially with the league being allowed to hit. She’s going to be so good.”
Speaking of playing with the best players in the world, after the draft the next question is whether Guilday will be named to Team USA’s roster for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The selection would not come as a shock since Guilday has already totalled 38 games and nine points for the US National Team, helping her country win three Women's World Championship medals and a Six Nations Tournament title.
“It’s always an incredible honor,” Guilday said when asked about representing the US on the ice. “It’s something that you are grateful for every time you pull on that jersey and every time you're involved with that group.”
Regardless of what comes next, Guilday’s impact at Cornell is undeniable. Along with her 10 fellow seniors, Guilday helped lead Cornell from a .500 team to competing for National Championships.
“I’m maybe a little biased because she’s one of my best friends, but she is the best human being I know. She’s such a good, well rounded person,” Rud said. “Obviously a very good teammate, friend, person. She excels not only on the ice but off the ice, as well in the classroom. I have nothing but good things to say about her.”
Eli Fastiff is a senior editor on the 143rd editorial board and a member of the class of 2026 in the College of Arts and Sciences. You can follow him on X @Eli_Fastiff and reach him at efastiff@cornellsun.com.
