Seven New Englanders will be competing this week as USA Hockey holds the Women's O18 National Festival at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y. With the O18 players, the goal is to evaluate players for the 2023-24 U.S. Women’s National Team, which competes at the Rivalry Series in November and December. It also is...
Seven New Englanders will be competing this week as USA Hockey holds the Women's O18 National Festival at Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y.
With the O18 players, the goal is to evaluate players for the 2023-24 U.S. Women’s National Team, which competes at the Rivalry Series in November and December.
It also is used to help pick the Collegiate Women’s Select Team rosters for the Collegiate Series against Canada. That will happen Aug. 16-19 in Lake Placid.
Massachusetts has the most representatives, sending four of the seven New Englanders in attendance.
Forwards Alex Carpenter (North Reading, Mass.), Becca Gilmore (Wayland, Mass.) and Casey O'Brien (Aquinnah, Mass.) were invited to attend, along with defender Mia Biotti (Cambridge, Mass.).
Carpenter was a star for Boston College from 2011-16, posting 278 points in 150 games. She represented the United States in the 2014 and 2022 Olympics. Gilmore most recently played for the Boston Pride in the Premier Hockey Federation. Before that, she posted 125 points in 122 games over four seasons at Harvard from 2017-22. O'Brien is fresh off a national championship victory with the University of Wisconsin, scoring 19 goals and adding 29 assists in 41 games this past winter.
Biotti scored two goals for Harvard and notched seven assists in 31 games in 2022-23. She registered two goals and 15 points in 32 games the previous season.
The other three representatives at the festival are defenders Caroline Harvey (Salem, N.H.), Sydney Morrow (Darien, Conn.) and Maddy Samoskevich (Sandy Hook, Conn.).
Harvey was tabbed the Bob Allen Women's Player of the Year in June, which "recognizes the accomplishments of one outstanding American-born women's hockey player," according to USA Hockey. It's no surprise that Harvey won the award after winning the national championship with Wisconsin and then scoring a gold medal at the IIHF Women's World Championship, leading all players in the tournament in points with 14 and was named the tournament's best defender.
Morrow was a standout defender with Shattuck St. Mary's from 2017-22 and spent this past season as a freshman at Ohio State, scoring three goals and eight points in 33 games. Samoskevich just finished her junior season at Quinnipiac, posting four goals and 21 points in 40 games.
