Mount Royal Begins Campaign To Repeat As National Champions

After upsetting every team in their way last year, the underdog Mount Royal Cougars won a USports national championship. Can they repeat in 2024?

Repeating a championship is the most difficult task in sports. The Mount Royal Cougars will look to do just that as they approach the 2023-2024 USports women's hockey season after stunning the nation winning a national championship after entering the national tournament ranked eighth. 

They stopped the Concordia Stingers, last year's champions, from repeating defeating them 4-3 in overtime in the national championship game.

With the exception of team captain and leading scorer Tatum Amy, who signed a professional contract with the PHF's Buffalo Beauts, the bulk of the Mount Royal roster is eligible to return.

Key returnees for this coming season include Norwegian national team member Emma Bergesen. Bergesen was a first team All-Canadian defender scoring 22 points in 28 games from the Cougars' blueline this season. She's the anchor of Mount Royal's roster.

Up front, watching third year forward Aliyah Jomha attempt to fill the void left by Amy will be a storyline to follow. Alongside Courtney Kollman and Tatum Amy, Jomha was one of the top young players in the West last season. An alumni of Edge School and Northern Alberta Xtreme, she's been training alongside some of the best in the nation for years.

Fourth year netminder Kaitlyn Ross will provide stability between the pipes for the Cougars after posting a spectacular 1.42 GAA and .931 save percentage in 22 games last season. In the playoffs, Ross miraculously improved those numbers to 1.23 and .948.

Repeating is never easy, and as an underdog to win last year, Mount Royal University has the odds stacked against them this year again. That said, this team proved odds mean nothing by winning the 2023 USports national title, and could very well surprise fans when the season ends this year.