Glenboro’s Brittni Mowat is the latest local player to accept a full NCAA Division 1 women’s hockey scholarship for next season.
The 17-year-old goaltender with the Pembina Valley Hawks Midget AAA girls hockey team has verbally committed to Bemidji State University and plans to make it official today when she signs her national letter of intent. Mowat is the seventh female hockey player from southwestern Manitoba to land a full-ride scholarship for next season.
For Mowat, making her final decision is a huge weight off her shoulders.
"It feels good to just have it over with and have something to look forward to," Mowat said last night. "The decision is not in the back of your mind anymore, you can just focus on the season and not have that bother you."
Mowat went to Bemidji State in her lone recruiting visit earlier this year, but also considered the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) in Troy, N.Y., before making her final decision to go to the northern Minnesota school.
"I was kind of looking at RPI in New York, but I wasn’t looking to go that far away," said Mowat, who helped lead Manitoba to a silver medal at the Canadian under-18 women’s hockey championship earlier this month in Dawson Creek, B.C.
Mowat joined Hawks defenceman Madison Hutchison of Manitou in committing to Bemidji State, which currently features sophomore defenceman Kaleigh Chapman of Virden on the Beavers blue-line.
Other local players to accept full Division 1 scholarships this season include Brandon’s Ashleigh Brykaliuk (University of Minnesota-Duluth), Neepawa’s Halli Krzyzaniak (North Dakota), Ninette’s Jessica Vallotton (Maine), Virden’s Karissa Kirkup (Maine) and her Hawks teammate Cassidy Carels (Providence College) of Bruxelles.
The 5-foot-7 Mowat was named the top goaltender while leading Pembina Valley to the 2012 Esso Cup national midget girls hockey championship title and is having another superb season in the Manitoba Female Midget Hockey League.
Mowat currently sports a brilliant 0.92 goals against average and .961 save percentage in 13 games overall this season for the Hawks, who lead the league with an 8-0-3 record.
Mowat said there would be no better way to complete her midget career than by winning back-to-back national championships.
"We have started off the season quite well and we haven’t lost a league game yet, so we’ve got to keep improving and hopefully (repeating) will happen," she said.
» jshewaga@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition November 20, 2012
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