POTSDAM — The 2024-25 Clarkson Women's Hockey team will open their season on the road with an opponent that they have yet to face in their 21 year history.

Clarkson will visit Burlington, VT to face Saint Michael's College on Friday, September, 27th and Saturday September, 28th.  Clarkson is ranked 3rd in the USA Hockey Magazine Poll and was a preseason #1 in the ECAC Coaches Poll.

Coach Desrosiers and the Golden Knights will look to build upon last season's return to the Final Four with some great pieces back and some big questions to be answered.  The bench for the Golden Knights will look different this season, gone is long time Assistant Coach, Tony Maci.  He is now the head of Union College.  A replacement for that position is still being processed.  Cam Basarab is also now solely with the Women's program as an assistant coach.  Last season, Cam split between Men and Women, working with Goalies.

In the crease, the Knights lost Goaltender of the Year, Michelle Pasiechnyk, but return a deep core and added an incoming freshman.  Julia Minotti carries the most experience into the season.  Julia was one of the top goalies in the ECAC despite playing behind Pasiechnyk, in over 500 minutes of action she only allowed an average 0.57 goals against. Minotti went 8-0-1 with 5 shutouts.   

The defensive corp is probably the strongest returning group of any in the country.  Headlining the group are ECAC Preseason All League Selections, Haley Winn and Nicole Gosling.  Gosling is the reigning ECAC Defender of the Year, and both were All Americans last season.  Keira Hurry was an All Rookie defender in the ECAC and will pick valuable minutes.  BC Transfer, Caroline Aufiero will replace the veteran presence that Alexie Guay provided.  The versatile Kirstyn McQuigge will also be able to give the Knights shifts at the point when called upon.

Scoring was a team effort last year for the Knights, they were 5th in the nation for points, yet did not have a player ranked in the top 30 for individual points.  That looks to be the trend again this year.  The Knights return Anne Cherkowski, who has put up two straight 30 point seasons.  Clarkson will need to find a way to replace the point production of Dom Petrie and Brooke McQuigge.  Transfers Caroline Goffredo and Madison Chantler bring experience to the line up and should provide some scoring depth.  Jenna Goodwin and Sena Catterall both had 21 points last season and should see their point production go up this year.  Newcomers Raydyn Spademan and Jessica MacKinnon are likely to have the quickest adjustment to the college game and should be counted on early in the season.

Clarkson will have a 4 game homestand when they host UVM on Oct. 4th & 5th, then Robert Morris on Oct. 11th & 12th.  There will be a Skate with the Knights on Sunday Oct. 6th, after the Men's game vs RIT that both teams will be on the ice for.  The Knights were selected #1 in the ECAC Coaches Poll and will begin their ECAC portion of the schedule when they travel to Quinnipiac on Nov. 1st.  Other highlights of this schedule will be another game during the school day that will be attended by area youths, this time at Appleton on Wednesday, Nov. 13th.  THe Knights will also head to Nashville for the SMASHVILLE SHOWCASE on Nov. 29th and 30th.