Athlete of the Week

Men used to wear hats.

That's why we have this thing called the hat trick in hockey. Almost every hockey fan knows that the term hat trick comes from stories of old-time fans being so impressed with the performances of men on the ice scoring three goals in one game that they threw their hats on the ice.

Now men don't wear hats, and, if they did, they would have to throw them on the ice at women's hockey games. How's that for changing times.

Women's hockey's junior forward Gretchen Anderson more than deserved her share of frosty lids this week. In addition to posting a goal in a 2-2 tie with Maine, she lit the lamp three times and added an assist in the Tigers' 6-2 thumping of Northeastern.

Her offensive punch has pushed Princeton to a 2-0 start in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference and a 6-2 overall record so far. With a conference full of strong scoring powers, including league-leading Dartmouth, her goalscoring prowess should help Tigers' head coach Jeff Kampersal '92 said of Anderson that, "Gretchen is a skilled player who is clever around the net. She has a knack for scoring big goals."

No kidding.

Anderson has been known to score five goals a weekend and notch game-winning goals — two of them in fact — as she did last season.

But this weekly award on the pages of this fine publication is not given for performances from last season. Anderson's fast start to this year, and her team's, have earned her not only the recognition of The Daily Princetonian, but also the ECAC and goprincetontigers.com player of the week awards.

Put that hardwear on her shelf next to her nomination to the ECAC All-Rookie team two years ago and her spot in the 2002 USA Hockey Under-22 Women's Festival and she's putting together quite a college career.

Stay tuned; this may be her first of many appearances on this page.