“With the handful that we have, it brings in a lot of experience, especially if they’re a Division I transfer or someone who has been successful at the Division III level. It helps mold a lot of those newcomers as freshmen. They don’t have to feel as much pressure. They get a little bit of guidance, too. So it kind of goes hand in hand as everybody gets comfortable,” Elmira College women’s ice hockey coach Greg Haney said of his transfers for the 2024-25 season.
Haney went on to say, “I think the transfers have all played at a high level. They still have an adjustment period when they get to our program, but they bring experience and knowledge on how to operate on a day-to-day basis. That’s one of the big things that we look at.”
“I think that coming in as a transfer, a new face, is always a little bit nerve-wracking. With our culture, our leadership, and the way we operate on a day-to-day basis, it’s a big family, and the room embraces that and wants that in return. Being a little bit vulnerable on both ends is important, but you see the product on the ice with that chemistry building,” Haney said of his team, who have welcomed two new transfers and elected a third to a leadership position.
Leaving a place one knows and a group of teammates that one sees essentially every day for an unknown is scary. It’s a step outside of one’s comfort zone. It’s a roll of the dice. For Emily Lenzen ’24, Sarah Waszkielewicz ’26, and Gabby Dougherty ’26, it is a risk that has more than paid off.
Lenzen, coming off a sweep of her previous school over the weekend, notched two points in back-to-back wins had always planned on graduating early. After three years at New England College, that’s exactly what happened. One of the two Soaring Eagles’ assistant captains earned her degree with two years of eligibility left and decided to “Go play amazing hockey at Elmira. As soon as I talked to the coach and knew the culture was the right fit for me, I decided to come here.”
For Waszkielewicz, not being heard at her previous school led her to Haney’s team. In summary, the new blueliner “would either sit on the bench or sit in the stands. I would have a meeting with them and they wouldn’t necessarily tell me why or how I could fix it. Very mixed messages.”
Gabby Dougherty, from Syracuse University, pinpointed that “Ultimately, I had a feeling that this wasn’t for me. It wasn’t where I belonged. It wasn’t where I fit in. I was kind of hoping to change that. That brought me here.”
Dougherty has had Elmira on her radar since before committing to Syracuse. In fact, before college, EC was one of her “top choices” as a high school student, and she visited the campus and “loved everything about it”.
When Haney reached out to her after seeing her name in the transfer portal, Dougherty was “super excited because I knew Elmira, I loved the school, and we took it from there. We talked over the phone, and I was fortunate that Syracuse is so close to here, so I got to visit. I actually visited twice, and I got to meet a lot of the current girls.”
With four full years of college hockey experience, but only one coming at Elmira, Lenzen said it was “a huge honor to even be wearing the Purple & Gold, but to be a leader and to help this program grow is something special. The leadership group last year helped build me into the person I am today, and I’m really happy to carry on the tradition as an assistant alongside [Sophie Compeau ’25] and [Alayna Toole ’26]; it’s a great group.”
“It was about two years ago in November, I got a call from the coach, and it took me back, I didn’t even know this was a possibility. It’s a huge honor to play here, the traditions, the culture, it’s something pretty special,” the forward shared.
Recalling her first conversation with Haney, Lenzen shared that the head coach “is a great guy. He’s got great experience. Even at NEC, I was brought in with their new coach as well, so I kind of had the same thing with Greg. [It was] A new program for me, a new program for him.”
As far as first impressions go, Lenzen remembers thinking how Elmira is much bigger than her previous school. “The classes here are great. My professors are amazing. Hockey is the easy part, and the history that this team has is huge and that was a huge factor in me deciding to come here.”
When reflecting on what she has enjoyed most off-the-ice since joining the Elmira community, Lenzen immediately stated her teammates. “It’s really about the people and making those connections. I’ve found my best friends here and people that I’ll stick with the rest of my life.”
Without taking hockey into consideration, Lenzen wanted to pair a business degree with her kinesiology degree to get into coaching or fitness after EC. “The schooling was really important for me. I talked to professors before I came here, and they knew what they were doing. They had a lot of background. I think the academic part drew me in, but the girls here were very welcoming, and that’s also really important.”
Waszkielewicz, coming from Division I Lindenwood University, hasn’t noticed a difference in skill but considers the NEHC to be a much faster pace, saying, “It might be two levels down, but it’s a faster pace. They push harder, the competition level is definitely up there with [Lindenwood].”
“Right at the start, [EC was a possibility], my old hockey coach called me as soon as I went on the transfer portal and told me that Greg was the head coach here and was really interested,” said Waszkielewicz about when the prospect of coming to Elmira seemed possible.
With six games under her belt for EC, Waszkielewicz has gotten her wish, saying Haney is “very forthcoming. He communicates great, and he tells you what’s what. He’s always there to help.”
Waszkielewicz’s first impression of Elmira was nothing short of amazing, “I loved it. As soon as I stopped on campus here, I had some of the girls walk me around. They were super welcoming and super nice. The community here is great. I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’ve also never seen a team this close. We do everything together.”
More than anything, Waszkielewicz was looking for a top school with a business major and has found her fit at EC. “As far as hockey, I didn’t ask for much, just some playing time, and if there wasn’t, a reason as to why there wasn’t.”
Since arriving in August, Waszkielewicz has enjoyed being around her teammates more than anything. “They are by far the best people I’ve interacted with before. They’re so welcoming and so nice, and they made it feel like home really quickly,” Waszkielewicz said of her new teammates.
Dougherty has noticed that the game is “faster-paced” at Elmira and playing in the NEHC. Specifically, the blueliner mentioned the practices, the compete level, and how excited the team is to be together as differences between Elmira and Syracuse. “I know people get wrapped up in the DI vs. DIII, but this is one heck of a team, and I’m lucky to be a part of it because there are some amazing players on this team.”
“Before I even met these girls, it felt like family,” Dougherty said of her first impression of the women’s hockey program on campus. “Even over the summer, we were having zooms, and everyone was texting and excited to meet me in person. Everyone was so willing to answer my questions, which was huge for me because, in some ways, you feel like a freshman again. [When you’re] coming in and you don’t really know what’s up. Everyone was so great over the summer. It was really exciting because even before I met these girls, it felt different. It felt special,” Dougherty said of her new teammates and how they welcomed her going back to last spring and over the summer.
“The little moments throughout the day. Walking to class and passing teammates and giving a wave, or if you’re close enough, you say ‘hey’ and then getting to walk with that smile for another minute. And then you see another friend and that smile is back. Even going and eating in the [campus center] because it’s fun because all of us are sitting at one table. Everyone remembers winning a big and all those big moments, but honestly, the things that get me excited to wake up each morning are the little things throughout the day,” Dougherty shared of what she has found most gratifying since being on campus.
For the Chelsea, MI native, being able to play with a clear mind and not having to worry about things has made her “fall back in love with the sport again. It honestly just takes me back to youth hockey, when you didn’t have a care in the world, and it was purely just fun and happiness. Every day is a blessing to be on the ice, so I’m grateful to have the opportunity to back out there with these girls and that brought back feeling so free on the ice. I feel like I can finally play my game, and I feel supported here by my teammates and coaches and they push me to be my best self.”
The process of transferring can be compared to the first time picking a college. There are similarities and differences. Some days are more stressful than others. Getting the process out of the way and being able to be back on the ice was good for Haney’s transfers.
“The process is very difficult. The girls here made me feel very welcome, and being on the ice is my go-to. Everything that’s in my mind as soon as I step on the ice is out the door. I can really focus on hockey as soon as I step on the ice and shake things off from the day. It just makes things easier to also be here with the girls who also want to work hard,” Lenzen shared.
All three went through their process and had to make difficult decisions. For Lenzen, it was leaving her old teammates. “I think the hardest part was leaving all the friendships I made at my old school. I have made my best friends that I’ll keep forever, and the hardest part was saying that I wasn’t going to be back next year, but I’m still playing, and I hope you can be happy for me, and I’ll still be happy for you.”
“It definitely took a while at the start. I struggled a lot with confidence at the end of last year, but slowly, it’s coming back. Now, I can just go out there, clear my head, and have two hours not to think about anything other than just hockey. It’s really clarifying,” Waszkielewicz said as she is glad the process is over and can now just get back to playing hockey.
Waszkielewicz found that the hardest part of the process was near the end of her experience in the portal: “When I had just a few schools, and I had to nitpick and do cross cancellations of which one I wanted and which one I didn’t. That was definitely the hardest because I built relationships with each of these coaches, and having to text or call them afterward and [say] ‘sorry, I decided to go here’ was difficult.”
“It’s really scary to take that step because even if it’s a poor situation you’re in, it’s so hard to leave that because it’s what you know. Ultimately, it’s unknown. I knew I could go somewhere, and it could be the same; it could be worse. Am I just stuck there? It’s risky, but I think at Syracuse and here, the girls were both very supportive and a huge help. Here, the girls were great and wanted me and welcomed me in. I think just, overall it is a scary thing. It worked out.”
