6 southeastern Minnesotans to watch as 2023-24 women's college hockey season begins
Oct. 5—The puck has dropped for most of the Division I women's hockey teams in the country.
For those teams that haven't played a regular-season game yet, they'll get their seasons underway this weekend.
Here's a look at six southeastern Minnesota natives in Division I women's hockey to keep an eye on in 2023-24:
The former Rochester Lourdes All-State forward is now a senior at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Mo., a St. Louis suburb. Dravis had 107 career points at Lourdes and helped it reached the Class 1A state tournament in 2019 and 2020. She has played in 64 career games for Lindenwood, which is off to a 2-2 start this season. Dravis was also a member of Lourdes' 2019 state champion 4x100 relay team, and was a two-time All-State selection in soccer.
The 5-foot-4 freshman forward will wear No. 5 in her inaugural season with the No. 2-ranked Ohio State Buckeyes. The talented playmaker played three seasons for Lourdes — as a seventh-, eighth- and ninth-grader, from 2017-20, helping the Eagles to a pair of state tournaments. She played the past three seasons at Shattuck St. Mary's, including the past two seasons on the Sabres' Prep Team (97 points in 112 games).
A 2021 Rochester Lourdes grad, the All-State defender helped the Eagles reach three consecutive state tournaments before heading to Boston University. Hanzel had 149 points in her high school career. She's a junior for the Terriers this fall after playing in 23 games over the past two seasons. She recorded her first collegiate point, an assist, against Boston College last February.
A 2022 Kasson-Mantorville grad, Rich is in her second season at Franklin Pierce University in New Hampshire. The former Shattuck St. Mary's and Dodge County standout (27 goals, 42 points as a senior in 2021-22) had a goal and eight points as a freshman last winter. She has one assist through two games this season for Franklin Pierce, which lost two games at the University of St. Thomas last weekend.
The 5-foot-6 standout defender and 2020 Lourdes graduate has been a mainstay on the blue line for Union College (Schenectady, N.Y.) for the past two seasons. Union is off to a 1-3 start this fall; Smith has one goal and is second on the team with eight blocked shots. Perhaps most impressive, Smith is a three-time All-America Scholar Athlete. A captain for the Garnet Chargers, she is majoring in biology with minors in chemistry and psychology. The 2020 Lourdes grad played in two Class 1A state tournaments with the Eagles and recorded 45 points in her high school career.
Stewart, a Rochester native and former star defender at Shattuck St. Mary's, will make her University of Minnesota debut this weekend when the Gophers play a two-game series at Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology. Stewart transferred to the Gophers to play her fifth and final season of college hockey this winter, after four seasons at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. She played in 133 games for the Bulldogs, recording six goals and 20 points. Stewart played on two national championship teams at Shattuck, and played on two UMD teams that reached the Frozen Four, including playing in the 2022 national championship game.
