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Women's hockey claims championship with victory against Badgers

March 12, 2003

The MSU women's hockey club added another impressive mark to its case for becoming a varsity sport, when it captured the American College Hockey Association championship on Saturday.

The Spartans edged Wisconsin 2-1 in a hard-fought contest in Muskegon. While on a power play, freshman forward Amanda Gallery scored on the rebound of a shot by junior forward Amber Jones midway through the third period.

"We pretty much felt we were the top two teams in the country," MSU head coach Craig Payment said. "We were pretty loose - which is unusual for a championship game. We thought whoever won it was going to get a power-play goal."

Wisconsin was the defending ACHA champion, and senior defenseman Eileen Pulis said the Badgers were the team's toughest competition.

"They were a strong team throughout the whole, entire game," Pulis said. "The last 10 seconds were the longest 10 seconds I've ever felt in my life. They controlled the puck just as much as we did in the last three minutes."

But Payment said the team needs to calm itself down and ready itself for a pair of games at Oakland this weekend. The Spartans will then play in the Central Collegiate Women's Hockey Association tournament later this month.

MSU belongs to both the ACHA and CCWHA, and is looking to add another impressive mark on its résumé.

But Payment and some players say even with the club's recent success, it still might be hard to obtain varsity status.

"My freshman year (other players) said we'd be varsity by the time we've graduated," Pulis said. "It's like we're always taking one step forward and two steps backward."

Club members have applied for varsity status twice in the team's eight-year existence, once in 1996 and again in 1999.

When a club wants to become a varsity team, it must meet several criteria, such as: creating a description of a competitive schedule, listing other varsity teams in the area, displaying its fund-raising efforts and proving it is a "viable team."

"By winning the national championship, you've got to say, 'Alright, we're a viable team,'" Payment said. "They need a facility, so I don't think that would happen before a new rink were built."

Although the team has been successful in generating money, MSU Athletics Director Ron Mason told The State News in October that fund raising is only one piece of the puzzle.

He said most money raised would go toward buying video equipment and constructing study areas, but not the facilities. Mason also said he would only add a sport he felt had a large following at the high school level in Michigan. Mason was unavailable for comment Tuesday.

Even with fund raising, athletes spend more than $900 a season to be on the club and junior forward Sarah Steele said Mason is not helping the players' situations.

"I have some pretty biased feelings," Steele said. "I think the reasons they don't make us a varsity team is a lot of it has to do with the cost. They don't want to spend their money on us frankly."

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