Six former University of Maine women’s ice hockey players will be playing in the Winter Olympics in Italy next month including the school’s top two career point-getters.
All-time leading scorer Tereza Vanisova, who tallied 129 points on 63 goals and 66 assists in 129 games at UMaine, and Ida Kuoppala, who had 67 goals and 59 assists for 126 points in 156 games, will suit up for Czechia and Finland, respectively.
Vanisova’s former UMaine teammate, Vendula Pribylova, joins her on the Czechia roster and both will be playing in their second Olympics.
Rahel Enzler will skate in her second Olympics for Switzerland and Kuoppala will be making her Olympic debut along with the Welcke twins, Luisa and Lilli, who will be playing for Germany.
The Welcke twins played one season at UMaine before transferring to Boston University, where they are currently seniors.
All six are forwards.
Vanisova, who will turn 30 later this month, is currently playing for the first-year Vancouver Goldeneyes in the Professional Women’s Hockey League where she has five assists in 10 games.
She played for the Ottawa Charge in the PWHL last season and led the Charge to a berth in the Walter Cup finals, where they lost to Minnesota three games to one in their best-of-five series.
Vanisova was the Charge’s top point-getter with 22 and goal scorer with 15 during the regular season.
The 29-year-old Pribylova, who had 21 goals and 39 assists in 129 games at UMaine, has spent the past five seasons playing in Sweden’s top women’s professional league including the last four years with MoDo. She has two goals and six assists in 28 games so far for MoDo this season.
The 25-year-old Kuoppala is also playing in Sweden’s top league for Skelleftea, where she has registered nine goals and 13 assists in 29 games. It is her second season with Skelleftea. She had 13 goals and 11 assists in 32 games a year ago.
Enzler is also 25 and is playing for the EVZ women in the top Swiss League. Enzler played in 103 games at UMaine and had 11 goals and 38 assists. In her two seasons for EVZ, including this one, she has garnered 33 goals and 60 assists in 52 contests.
The 23-year-old Welcke sisters had their best collegiate seasons to date at UMaine when they were freshmen.
Luisa Welcke had eight goals and 14 assists for 22 points in 33 games during the 2022-23 season and her sister had six goals and 15 assists for 21 points in 33 games.
Each had their best seasons at BU last season when Lilli Welcke had five goals and 12 assists in 34 games and her sister had six goals and 10 assists in 35 contests.
Lilli has five goals and three assists in 19 games this season and Luisa has two goals and four assists, also coming over 19 games.
The Welcke twins and their German teammates will play Sweden in their Olympic opener on Feb. 5 with Czechia taking on the United States and Finland facing Canada later that day.
Enzler’s Swiss team will play its first game against Czechia the next day.