Botterill, Shewchuk Named Kazmaier Finalists

The USA Hockey Foundation announced the 10 nominees for the 2001 Patty Kazmaier Award on Monday and, for the second year in a row, two players on the Harvard women's hockey team were on the list.

Senior winger Tammy Shewchuk and junior co-captain Jennifer Botterill

represent the No. 5 Crimson (11-6-0, 11-2-0 ECAC) on this year's list.

Botterill has been nominated for the second year in a row, while Shewchuk is a nominee for the first time since 1998-99, when Harvard won the AWCHA

national championship.

"If Jen and I entered as a duo we would blow away the competition,"

Shewchuk joked. "We complement each other really well and I know that

Jen's a big reason I'm on this list. It's always nice to know that people are paying attention to what we do on the ice."

Botterill leads the ECAC in goals (23) and points (37), while Shewchuk is

fifth in the conference with nine goals and 32 points. While most of the top 10 scorers have played at least 20 games, however, neither Botterill nor Shewchuk has played 15 games due to time commitments with the Canadian National Team and Harvard's disruptive exam schedule. The two Canadians are the only players in the conference who average more than two points a game.

Botterill, the conference rookie of the year as a freshman and the player of the year as a sophomore, has continued to improve in her third season.

She still dishes the puck to open teammates, but she has made a point of crashing the net as much as possible this season. As a result, she has eight more goals than her nearest competitor.

Shewchuk, Harvard's all-time leading scorer, has become a complete player in her final season. She is still faster than most defenses and deadly from anywhere between the circles, but with 23 assists, Shewchuk is now also a threat to find teammates (usually Botterill) streaking through the slot to score.

The Kazmaier Award, given to the most outstanding player in women's hockey, is in its fourth year of existence. The list of nominees was selected by all Division I coaches, each of whom was asked to submit up to two players for the ballot.

An 11-member selection committee will choose three finalists for the award on March 12. The committee includes coaches, reporters, and a representative of USA Hockey. A.J. Mleczko '99 is the only Harvard player to have won the Kazmaier.

Harvard was one of two schools with two players nominated. The other is Minnesota, the defending national champion, which is represented by forward Nadine Muzerall and defenseman Courtney Kennedy.

The other six nominees include senior goaltender Erika Silva of Northeastern (the only netminder on the list) and forwards Meghan Hunter of Wisconsin, Andrea Kilbourne of Princeton, Michelle Thornton of New Hampshire, Maria Rooth of Minnesota-Duluth and Jessica Tabb of Providence.