W. hockey's Gretchen Anderson still attracting press, national attention

It is said that familiarity breeds contempt, but hearing senior forward Gretchen Anderson talk about women's hockey shows that nothing could be further from the truth.

Anderson, who grew up outside of Boston, has been playing hockey all her life, but has a love for the sport which is obviously undiminished and continues to manifest itself in her spectacular play, year after year.

Growing up with five older siblings, all of whom played hockey, provided both inspiration and challenge to her. She competed in both figure skating and hockey until age nine, and was mixing it up in male hockey leagues until the age of 16.

She was recruited by a number of schools as a star player coming out of St. Mark's School in Massachusetts, but had her sights set on Princeton from the beginning.

Since arriving here Anderson has had a brilliant career filled with awards, including being Princeton's leader in both points and goals each year since she was a sophomore, but it has not been without mishaps. She has yet to complete a full season healthy, as she contracted mono freshman year, broke a thumb sophomore year, and broke a wrist junior year. Last year, as a junior, she was selected to represent America at the 2003 Women's Hockey World Championships in Beijing, but the threat of SARS canceled the event.

Now in her senior year, she is one of ten nominees for the annual Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the top women's ice hockey player in the nation. Through all this hoopla, she still just enjoys every time she gets on the ice.

"Especially as a senior, it's just so bittersweet for me," says Anderson. "I really am cherishing every moment I have left at Baker Rink, during both practices and the games I have left here."

The true test of her passion for hockey will come next year. While most of her fellow members of Princeton's class of 2004 will attend graduate school or enter the workforce, Anderson will be living at home in Boston, training with the US team for the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Anderson has only excitement for the next two years of training, as she will be joining her friend Andrea Kilbourne '03, as well as many other talented women's hockey players she has gotten to know well over the years.

One of the key components in transforming Anderson into the world class player she is today has been Princeton's head coach, Jeff Kampersal '92, whom she describes as "both a great coach and a great friend." Kampersal speaks almost reverently of Anderson's "gift" on the ice, saying that "she has a knack for scoring goals that reminds me of only a handful of players I've seen."

Anderson counts many of her team members among her closest friends, and in the close-knit world of women's hockey, intends to keep it that way.

"The chemistry of the team is always changing," she comments. "But you always form such great bonds — they'll last a lifetime."

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Looking at the team's performance this year gives Anderson both confidence and pride. The goal for the team is to finish at least fourth in the Eastern College Athletic Conference regular season standings, giving the Tigers home-ice for the playoffs.

"Everything is coming together for us," she says. "We struggled with some consistency issues earlier, but we're just trying to keep it upbeat and not lose our focus."

Focus is certainly not an issue for Anderson, as she is sure to enjoy her last games as a Tiger and will work to go out on a high note — a tough task as four of the team's final six games are against top-10 teams.

Three of those teams ar e familiar Ivy League opponents. The Tigers host No. 3 Dartmouth this weekend (17-4-2 overall, 8-3-1 ECAC) before two games against No. 7 Mercyhurst (23-4-4) the next week in Princeton's last homestand of the season. The Tigers then wrap up the regular season on the road, traveling to No. 10 Brown (12-7-2, 8-3-1) and No. 2 Harvard (20-2-1, 10-2-0). Princeton split two games with Harvard and Brown earlier this season.