(By Tiffany Anderson ’26, special contributor)
The common goal of the LVC women’s ice hockey team is striving for success. The points that Anna Dale, sophomore forward, has put up for this team have helped to create a team-first mentality.
“This team wants to win, and Anna’s ‘whatever it takes’ attitude [is] a huge part of it,” Matt Yingst, head coach of the women’s ice hockey team, said.
Anna Dale, a sophomore from Juneau, Alaska, is a key player for the women’s ice hockey team. It seems as though she was meant to be.
Dale was just about to turn four years old when she laced up her first pair of hockey skates. Dale’s mom says that Dale was inspired by her older brothers, Michael and Jacob, to play hockey.
“She spent so much time at the rink watching them and wanting to be on the ice like they were,” Robin Dale, Anna Dale’s mother, said.
In Juneau, Alaska, there was never an opportunity for Dale to play competitive hockey as she was growing up. She was only able to play on a house league team until she went to high school. In high school, she played three different sports and was on varsity her entire high school career. She was named captain of her ice hockey team for both her junior and senior years of high school.
Dale is also the only girl in Alaska to ever make the all-conference team for high school and the only player out of Juneau—including men and women—to play NCAA ice hockey. Because of being the first to play at the collegiate level, she had little guidance on how to be recruited. She says she aspired to go D1 but was worried that hockey would turn into a job. She wanted to continue loving the sport.
Dale sent LVC a highlight video the spring of her senior year hoping to score a spot on the team. One of the assistant coaches, Jon Benchich, jumped at the opportunity for her to come be apart of the team.
“She is a diamond in the rough,” Benchich said.
Coming into her freshman year, Dale said she was nervous, but did not feel the transition was very difficult. She says the biggest difference between boys’ high school hockey to women’s collegiate hockey is that the game is faster and smarter as a whole. She feels as though she has gained more experience playing in NCAA DIII hockey.
Having a year under her belt, Dale has decided to take control of the conference. Dale is the leader in several categories for the MAC conference: goals, goals per game, points, points per game, game-winning goals and hat tricks.
Dale scored her 25th goal of the season against the Stevenson Mustangs, putting her at 32 career goals and counting. She broke the record of all-time goals for the women’s ice hockey program this year and is continuing to break other records as well. She now has 49 points in her career, which is also a record set for most points for an LVC women’s ice hockey player.
When Dale was asked how she feels about her success, she said she is having fun, and it is clear she is incredibly humble.
“If you look at my stats, I only have three unassisted goals, which shows that I do not have success on my own, but because of my teammates,” Dale said.
She said that the expectations she has set for herself and her teammates continue to grow.
“I know now what we can do,” she said.
LVC women’s ice hockey is continuing to break records with Dale’s efforts. They have broken their win record in a single season this year with 13 conference wins and 16 overall wins.
Yingst has expressed his gratitude for Dale being such a driving force for the team.
“I am extremely proud. I think she is a fantastic piece to our puzzle,” Yingst said. “There is nothing to dislike about Anna, she doesn’t gloat nor look down on others. She is a very driven individual; if not driven, determined.”
Coach Yingst thinks that having Dale on the team has helped create a team-first mentality through her attitude, effort and energy. He mentioned how Dale is a leader by example, on and off the ice.
Dale is a contestant for MAC conference player of the year. With all of the records she is setting, her teammates and coaches agree that they would be disappointed if she was not awarded that accolade.
Many are excited to see how the rest of the season plays out for the Flying Dutchmen, and the LVC community wishes them the best of luck in the postseason. For more information on the season, visit Godutchmen.com.