Villiote Overcomes Unusual Obstacles

Sometimes the most important things in life we take for granted. Our health. Our happiness. Our families.

And, as in the case of women's hockey goalie Erin Villiote, sometimes even our athletes.

In her quest to play hockey, Villiote has been confronted with tremendous obstacles.

But odds and standards have never seemed to bother Villiote, who has proven over her four-year career to be one of Harvard's most reliable goalies ever.

Villiote's career almost came to a halt before it even had a chance to get started. She was looking to play hockey when she began school at Shrewsbury High in Shrewsbury, Mass.

But there was one small problem: the school had no women's hockey team. Instead of throwing her hockey dreams away, however, Villiote tried out for and made the boys' varsity team, the first girl to achieve such a feat in school history.

She did more than make the team, though. As a senior, she became the first girl in a school history to captain a boys' team, and was even the team MVP for the season. And she did all this while also playing soccer, track and softball.

While being a trailblazer of sorts may have held some appeal to Villiote, she prefers to look at her achievements from a purely athletic perspective.

Villiote is only 5' 2" tall, so, as she admits. "I would be at a disadvantage if I was not quick." And she credits most of her quickness as coming from the quality of play she faced in high school.

"Playing with guys was completely different [from playing with girls]," she says. "It's a lot faster game, played on a very high level. I didn't think--I just made the saves."

Villiote believes that her high school style has carried over into her play at Harvard.

"I'm a stay-at-home, stand-up goalie, and more of a reflex goalie," she says. "I don't play like Tripp [Tracy, men's goalie]--that makes me nervous."

Although Villiote admits that the transition to the women's game "was hard at first," she feels that her job was made much easier by the team's strength during her crucial freshman year.

"When I was a freshman, there were about seven seniors on the team," she explains. "I started, but we had good enough players in front that the goalie was not that important. By my sophomore year, we only had 10 players, and the goalie became more important."

All in all, the formula has brought about many positive results. Villiote has started the majority of games in goal for all of her four years, and holds a number of Crimson records. Among these are most shutouts in a season (six, achieved in her freshman year of (1991-92), most shutouts in a career (13), most saves in a game (52, in a 3-3 tie vs. Providence last February 19) and most saves in a season (613, 1992-93).

She was also a first-team all-Ivy League selection sophomore year, and a second-team selection junior year.

Perhaps the most impressive of her long list of accolades occured this past November 27. In a 2-2 tie against Northeastern, she broke the record for saves in a career with 1,771, surpassing the old mark of 1,747 held by Cheryl Tate '84.

Villiote is somewhat self-deprecating in her appraisal of her feats. She calls most of her save records "dubious," and admits with a laugh, "the fact that I've faced over 1700 shots is kind of scary."

"The records are nice, but it's definitely more important for the team to do well," she continues. "If that means my being on top of my game, that's fine."

Although some of the Villiote's records may be unglamorous, her teammates definitely realize her importance.

"She's vital to the team," says sophomore forward A.J. Mleczko, the Crimson's leading scorer. "She anchors that defense. She has so much experience, and that's helped her help us. A good goalie can make a good team."

So far this season, Villiote and the Crimson have both performed solidly. Villiote has started 9 of 11 games, compiling a 4-4-1 record with a 3.27 GAA, while leading the team to a 6-4-1 overall mark.

The highlight of her short season occured in a 3-1 victory over Princeton, in which she turned back 33 of 34 shots.

"I was really on top of my game, really psyched and ready to play that day," she says.

Overall, Villiote is happy with the team's performance and prospects in her final season in goal.

"We're doing a lot a better than I imagined," she says, nothing that certain teams have roughly twice as many players as the Crimson. "We've been in every game we've played, and we haven't given up. We're just developing more confidence in close games, and playing with our heads up."