In the past couple of years, the UW Ice Hockey Club has made efforts to make hockey an important part of campus sports. This year more than ever, the team's play has merited a look from the campus community. The club team in the AHCA's Pac-8 travels all over the West Coast to compete against teams like Stanford, Oregon, UCLA and USC.

This weekend, the Washington Husky hockey club travels to Oregon to play UCLA in the first round of the Pac-8 championships in Eugene, Ore., which begin Friday evening at 5:30. The Huskies have a record of 2-1 against UCLA during the regular season. The one Bruin win over the Huskies ended up 5-4 in overtime.

Among other achievements, the UW also finished its season with a 24-4 record and ranked ninth in the national AHCA poll.

"It's the first time we've been ranked in the top 10," coach Cindy Dayley said. "In the future, we hope to come out ahead and be able to compete with the best in the league."

"The men had an incredible season. Our record is 24-4, and that's the best record the team ever had. Despite our difficult schedule, we've done really well."

Washington has relied on is experienced players as well as its new members throughout the year. Last year, the Huskies experienced difficulties when they placed fifth behind Stanford with a (4-6) conference record and an overall record of 10-8.

"We're one year older," Dayley said. "We have a great returning squad and got some incredible freshman athletes who have brought more depth to the team. It's a really wonderful combination of the old and the new."

If the Huskies are victorious against UCLA, they will either go against the No. 1 seed USC or fourth-place Oregon.

The Huskies believe they have a real chance to win the Pac-8 championship, but recognize that the competition will be stiff.

"It'll definitely be competitive, but if we play the game that we've been all season, then we'll definitely have a chance to win," freshman Brett Lawrence said. "We can't take any team lightly, that's why we can't go to a game expecting to win."

UCLA recently took out the Trojans, who had previously been undefeated.

"[The Bruins] have a strong team," Dayley said, "but our team is, I believe, stronger. If we play our 'A' game, we can win, but it will be a terribly close game."

The Huskies are focused on playing at the Pac-8 conferences and are practicing using a unique strategy.

"The practices are very intense," Dayley said. "We have basic training, but there are also systems that are run and we focus on other team's systems. Oregon, for example, has an incredible offensive system, and it's a difficult system to defend against. We beat Oregon four times this season so we must be doing something right."

Copyright©2000 The Daily University of Washington

(c) Husky Hockey, 2001