Women's Hockey: From Hudson to Hobey Baker, a presence between the pipes

“Rachel is a happy person with a very likeable personality,” Kampersal said. “She is a good student, an avid TV watcher, a songwriter and a guitarist.”

Despite this full range of interests and hobbies, Weber has recently garnered the most praise for her performance in the goal.

“Rachel’s play over the last few months has been nothing short of phenomenal,” Kampersal said.

Over the course of four consecutive games against Syracuse, Boston College, Quinnipiac and Clarkson — all shutouts — Weber recently set the ECAC Hockey record for the longest period of time with the fewest goals allowed at 289 minutes and 43 seconds. The record is almost three minutes longer than the previous ECAC record, set by Cornell’s Amanda Mazzotta, and is the fourth longest shutout streak in the NCAA since the 2000-01 season.

“I’m just really excited that the team was able to shut down our opponents for the longest streak in our league’s history,” she said. Clearly, Weber made a significant personal contribution to that record, and the humble and team-focused Weber is happy to let it speak for itself.

Weber’s other accolades include three consecutive honors as the ECAC Hockey Goaltender of the Week and a remarkable 0.933 save percentage, on pace to be the highest of any Princeton goalie since at least the 2004-05 season and likely far beyond that.

Kampersal credits much of Weber’s recent success to her calm composure in the goal. “[Her] key quality is her unflappability,” he said. “She is the same kid no matter how she performs.”

This quiet resiliency seems to epitomize the women’s hockey team as a whole, which — after struggling at the start of the season with only three wins in its first 15 games — recently found its stride. A win against Brown at the start of December began an eight-game win streak for the Tigers, which was just recently snapped by a 3-2 loss to Clarkson on Saturday.

Despite her natural ability as goaltender, Weber played other positions before she was a goalie. She casually picked up the sport in second grade, because her best friend and neighbor played. In typically modest fashion, Weber explained that she ultimately embraced the goalie position because she was not the most gifted skater.

“When I started playing hockey, everyone on the team took turns playing goalie, and I always had fun when it was my turn. I wasn’t the fastest skater and playing goalie gave me an excuse to be slow,” Weber joked. “[Playing goalie] is all about reading the situation and reacting to the puck.”

Weber grew up in Hudson, Wis., and spent her early years on the ice playing with the Hudson Hockey Organization. After she made the varsity team at her high school, she decided to commit herself fully to the sport and tried out for an elite club team called the Minnesota Thoroughbreds.

A few years later, Weber met Princeton’s coaching staff, including Kampersal, when she made the National Development Camp the summer before her senior year of high school. Weber and Kampersal worked well together.

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“I got to know his personality and coaching style a little bit, and it seemed like a good fit,” Weber said. “Once I found out Princeton was interested in me, I knew that it would be my first choice.”

Weber is looking forward to what the rest of this season has in store for her and her teammates.

“I’m a very competitive person, and so I’m always going to work hard to try to improve and give myself an edge,” she said. “One of my favorite things [about hockey]…is that it’s a team sport, and I’m going to work my butt off to improve for my teammates. I would hate to let them down. That’s probably my greatest motivator.”