PPC Board of Directors meeting – Wednesday, August 13, 2025
The Power Play Club's Board of Directors is finalizing its club membership and fundraising plans for the new hockey year – the Gopher Women's Hockey program's 29th season of competition – and will be meeting again on Wednesday, August 13, at 7 p.m. online via Zoom to review the latest updates.
As always, board meetings are open to all club members (2024-2025 enrollees for these off-season meetings); please contact PPC president Bill Johnson (billjohnson013@gmail.com) or vice president Dave Malerich (dmalerich@yahoo.com) if you wish to attend.
Franco, Kaiser, Laitinen, O'Hara & Wethington honored as 2024-2025 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars
Catching up on news from earlier this month, we send our congratulations to Gopher Women's Hockey players Allie Franco, Madison Kaiser, Nelli Laitinen, Lauren O'Hara, and Audrey Wethington on being among 140 University of Minnesota student-athletes earning honors as 2024-2025 Big Ten Distinguished Scholars!! Wethington was additionally recognized as one of 35 Golden Gopher athletes posting a 4.0 GPA for the academic year.
Big Ten faculty representatives established the Distinguished Scholar Award in 2008 to supplement the Academic All-Big Ten program. Distinguished Scholar Award recipients must have earned Academic All-Big Ten recognition in the previous academic year, must have been enrolled full time at the institution for the entire previous academic year (two semesters or three quarters) and earned a minimum GPA of 3.70 or better during the previous academic year, excluding any summer grades.
Eight 2025-2026 Gophers, four alumnae invited to USA Hockey's 2025 Women's National Festival in Lake Placid
Current and incoming Gopher Women's Hockey players Bella Finale, Layla Hemp, Molly Jordan, Maddie Kaiser, Ava Lindsay, Sydney Morrow, Abbey Murphy & Jamie Nelson, and Gopher alumnae Taylor Heise, Kelly Pannek, Lee Stecklein & Grace Zumwinkle received invitations to USA Hockey's 2025 Women's National Festival, as announced yesterday (Monday, July 28).
The 12 are among 76 over-18 invitees to the festival, which starts this coming Sunday, August 3, in Lake Placid, New York, and runs through Saturday, August 9. They will be joined by 46 under-18 attendees.
Following the festival's completion, separate 25-player rosters will be named for the U.S. Under-18 Women's Select Team and the U.S. Collegiate Women's Select Team. Both squads will face their Canadian counterparts in three-game series on August 13, 14 and 16 in Lake Placid. Those games will be streamed live and on-demand on USAHockeyTV.com.
We send congratulations to our 11 Gopher representatives on receiving festival invitations, and good luck to those vying for roster spots on the Collegiate Women's Select Tea
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