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Alex Rigsby Earning Her Stars and Stripes for Team USA

09/23/2014, 4:30pm MDT
By Justin A. Rice - Special to USAHockey.com

Even though Alex Rigsby exhausted her eligibility at the University of Wisconsin last spring, she still showcased her Badger-painted goalie helmet when the U.S. National Women’s Team defeated Canada in three straight games during an Under-22 series last month in Calgary.

“Well, I don’t have another helmet, so I don’t know what else I’m supposed to wear,” Rigsby said during a recent telephone interview. “I’m just lucky my pads are red and white, so at least they match the uniform.

“Team Canada, they give their goalies generic helmets and the older girls [on Team USA] get their helmets painted. I’m not at that point yet.”

But Rigsby — who just missed making the national team that went on to become the Olympic team that took home the silver medal last February in Sochi, Russia — knows exactly what it will take to get to that point.

“It’s just a lot of dedication from here on out,” said the first goaltender in history to have played for the U.S. at the U18, U22 and national team level. “I’m training pretty much all on my own now. I don’t have someone to tell me what to do. It’s a matter of getting myself in the weight room and on the ice. It’s just me working hard and continuing to improve and being as sharp as I can be.”

A first-team All-American, Rigsby captained Wisconsin to its seventh Frozen Four last year, where the Badgers ultimately lost to the University of Minnesota. Rigsby also set a program record for career wins with 100, the second most in NCAA history. The Delafield, Wis. native was third in the country in goals-against average (1.32) and tied for the top save percentage (.945) in the nation before being named Wisconsin’s Female Athlete of the Year.

Even though the ultimate prize, a national championship, eluded the Badgers last year, Rigsby said returning to the team after being cut from the Olympic squad was crucial for her.

“Just to come back to a team that cares so much about each other, it was just really nice to play with them again,” she said.

Rigsby said she was “humbled” to be named captain by her Wisconsin teammates, despite the fact that goaltenders are rarely named captain.

“This past year I took on a different role, I had a team leadership role,” she said. “Just kind of growing in that way, being one of the older girls on the team, I feel like I gained a lot of experience I otherwise wouldn’t have dealt with if I was on the [national] team. I kind of gained more confidence saying stuff in the locker room. It was just different in that regard.”

Rigsby is undergoing another different experience now that she’s back on campus as a student, and not a student-athlete, expecting to graduate this spring with a degree in life science communications and entrepreneurship. She’s also working toward a certificate in visual studies.

Aside from taking classes and trying to coordinate training schedules with roommate and Team USA teammate Brianna Decker whenever possible, Rigsby also has an internship in the marketing department of the university’s athletics department. She’s been assigned to do promotions and events for the women’s basketball team as well as the football, soccer and volleyball teams.

“It’s awesome. You just see a completely different side of things that as an athlete you don’t really know is going on,” she said. “For games, you have to be there a couple hours early just as you do as an athlete, but you don’t get as physically exhausted.

“It’s cool to see what goes into trying to get fans to the games and that little stuff that goes on. It’s cool.”

Other than a potential gig as a practice goalie for a new United States Hockey League junior men’s team in Madison, Rigsby knows she isn’t going to get much game experience this fall. But she’s not worried about losing her edge and said giving her body a break from training six days a week could prove helpful in the long run.

Nevertheless, she’s still working out four times a week in the weight room and skating four times a week on her own. And while she misses the structure provided by a team atmosphere, she also knows motivating herself will only be one more skill needed to help reach her goal of making the Four Nation’s Cup squad in November and ultimately the 2018 U.S. Olympic Team.

“If I do make the Four Nations Cup team, I do hope I get more experience,” she said. “I only played in one [national team] game [last year], and I hope I can earn more of an opportunity to kind of prove myself there. It’s something I’ve wanted to do and been dreaming of for so long now.

“Hopefully it can turn into a reality.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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01/12/2008, 1:30pm MST
By U18 Women's World Champs

CALGARY, Alta. – The U.S. Women's National Under-18 Team captured the first-ever gold medal awarded at the inaugural 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation World Women's U18 Championship with a 5-2 victory over Canada here tonight at the Father David Bauer Arena. Alyssa Grogan (Eagan, Minn.) made 26 saves in the win, while five different players scored for the undefeated Team USA (5-0-0-0).

"I feel thoroughly satisfied with how these young athletes came to play tonight and they went out and won a world championship," said Katey Stone, head coach for Team USA and also the head women's ice hockey coach at Harvard University. "We went out, attacked and brought it home. It's a great day for USA Hockey."

Team USA came out strong in the first period, holding a 13-9 shots advantage and gaining a 2-0 advantage. Meagan Mangene (Manorville, N.Y.) opened the scoring at 12:12 when Brooke Ammerman (River Vale, N.J.) sent her a feed from behind the net and she roofed it from the bottom of the slot. Ammerman then tallied her sixth goal of the tournament at 18:48, as she grabbed Brianna Decker's (Dousman, Wis.) rebound at the right post and used her backhand to take it to the open left side of the net for a 2-0 U.S. lead heading into the second frame.

In the middle stanza, the Americans scored twice more to go up 4-0 before Canada used a power play to get on the board. U.S. goal No. 3 came at 2:29 of the period. CaptainSarah Erickson (LaPorte, Minn.) took a shot from the right faceoff circle that rebounded out to the left side, where Kendall Coyne (Palos Heights, Ill.) put it low past Canadian netminder Delayne Brian. Decker was next to light the lamp for the United States, as she skated the puck into Canada's zone from center ice and got a shot off with a Canadian player in tow. The shot hit the crossbar and landed in the net at 8:14 for a four-goal U.S. advantage.

The lone Canadian goal of the second period came at 18:17, while the Americans were down a man and had just killed off over a minute of a 5-on-3 Canadian advantage. Lauriane Rougeau took a shot from the left point that went off Carolyne Prevost's stick and into the U.S. net past Grogan.

Canada cut its deficit to 4-2 early in the final frame when Jessica Jones' wrister from the left faceoff circle slipped low inside the far post at 2:20. Amanda Kessel (Madison, Wis.) secured the gold-medal victory for Team USA with 7:46 to go in the game, as she skated in front of the goalmouth and beat Brian low for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: Brooke Ammerman was named the U.S. Player of the Game ...Team USA went 1-for-6 on the power play, while Canada was 1-for-5 with the man advantage ... Alyssa Grogan won the Directorate Award as the tournament's top goaltender ... Kendall Coyne, Anne Schleper (St. Cloud, Minn.) and Sarah Erickson were named Team USA's best players of the tournament ... Amanda Kessel (4-7--10) led the U.S. team in scoring ... Joining Katey Stone on the coaching staff as assistant coaches were Erin Whitten Hamlen, associate women’s ice hockey coach at the University of New Hampshire, andBob Deraney, head women’s ice hockey coach at Providence College.

GAME SUMMARY

Scoring By Period

USA 2 2 1 -- 5

CAN 0 1 1 -- 2

First Period - Scoring: 1, USA, Mangene (Ammerman), 12:12; 2, USA, Ammerman (Decker), 18:48. Penalties: USA, Bolden (high-sticking), 1:08; CAN, Rougeau (interference), 1:20; CAN, Watt (delay of game), 18:48.

Second Period - Scoring: 3, USA, Coyne (Erickson), 2:29; 4, USA, Decker (unassisted), 8:14; 5, CAN, Prevost (Rougeau), 18:17 (pp). Penalties: USA, Sherry (interference), 4:07; USA, Wild (holding), 8:42; CAN, Poulin (cross-checking), 13:22; USA, Bolden (interference), 16:12; USA, Grogan (tripping), 17:18.

Third Period - Scoring: 6, CAN, Jones (Prevost), 2:20; 7, USA, Kessel (unassisted), 12:14 (pp). Penalties: CAN, Team (too many players on the ice), 5:26; CAN, Poulin (hooking), 10:25; CAN, Watt (tripping), 18:15.

Shots by Period 1 2 3 Total
USA   13 8 6 27
CAN   9 13 6 28
           
Goaltenders (SH/SV)   1 2 3 Total
USA, Grogan, 60:00   9-9 13-12 6-5 28-26
CAN, Brian, 60:00   13-11 8-6 6-5 27-22

Power Play:USA 1-6; CAN 1-5

Penalties: USA 5-10; CAN 6-12
Officials: Referee-Joy Tottman (GBR); Linesmen-Marina Konstantinova (RUS), Alice Stanley (GBR)

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