Naemi Herzig was the youngest player on Team Switzerland at the 2024 World Championships. She has big goals ahead, while remaining in the moment. Switzerland’s PostFinance Women’s League is set to begin play on September 7, with the season’s first game featuring Ambri-Piotta versus Davos Ladies. As the first faceoff approaches, THN offers a preview of each of the league’s 8 teams. AMBRI-PIOTTA GIRLS After staving off relegation in 2022-23, Ambri-Piotta made great strides last season, getting all the way to the semifinals. The team will look to build on last season’s success, with long-time Swedish national team forward Fanny Rask once again leading the way. Rask tallied 55 points in 28 games last season, and could potentially eclipse that total with help from newly signed Czech star Michaela Pejzlová. Pejzlová joins the team after four successful seasons in Finland with Helsinki’s HIFK, where she scored 30-plus goals in each of her last two seasons. Julia Liikala also joins the team from HIFK, where she tallied a whopping 60 points in 26 games last season. Veteran Swiss defender Nicole Bullo will suit up for her twenty-second season in the top Swiss league, where she will be relied on to produce offence for an otherwise point-starved back end. Look for Swiss Olympian Romy Eggimann to provide veteran leadership to a squad that also features many young up and comers. SC BERN FRAUEN 2023-24 regular season champions SC Bern will once again be backstopped by small and mighty goaltender Saskia Maurer. Maurer posted a sterling 1.88 GAA in 15 starts for the team last season, and brings a wealth of international experience, having represented Switzerland at both the U18 and senior World Championships, as well as at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Assistant Captain Lara Christen returns to the squad’s blue line. Despite being only 21-years-old, Christen will be expected to provide veteran leadership on the blue line with the help of fellow defender Julia Marty, who won Olympic Bronze with Team Switzerland in 2014. French national team star and reigning PostFinance League MVP Estelle Duvin returns for her sophomore season with Bern, after putting up an impressive 67 points in 28 games last year. Swiss forward Emma Ingold returns after a breakout 2023-24 campaign that saw her set career-highs for goals (15), assists (21) and points (36), totals that she will hope to build on this season. HC DAVOS LADIES After finishing last season in fifth place, Davos will look to break into the playoff round this year. The team added a trio of USports graduates over the summer in forwards Joelle Fiala (University of British Columbia), Courtney Kollman, and Elizabeth Lang (both of the University of Calgary). Another interesting addition is 2025-26 Minnesota State commit Lucie Tenenbaum, who will play a gap year in Switzerland after patrolling the blue line in prep school last season for the Bishop Kearney Selects. Joining Tenenbaum will be Swiss national team regular Stefanie Wetli, fresh off a 3-game appearance at the inaugural tournament of the Women’s Euro Hockey Tour. Davos will once again look to American Leah Marino (veteran of two seasons in the now-defunct PHF) to generate offence. Marino was a point-per-game player for the team last year, and will need to continue at a similar pace if Davos hopes to make the playoffs next spring. HC FRIBOURG-GOTTÉRON LADIES The addition of Swiss-Canadian goaltender Alexandra Lehmann from SC Bern (where she posted a stingy 1.37 GAA in 14 games last season) will likely prove a boon for the club, which finished last season in sixth place. In a further attempt to shore up its defence, the team added defenders Lauren Dabrowski from Sweden’s SDE, and Swiss-Norwegian Nora Daneel from HC Davos. Swiss U18 national team D Rebecca Langenegger will look to take on more responsibility as she returns for her second season with the club. Among a number of additions up front are Canadian Maggy Burbidge and Finnish journeyman Jenna Suokko. Burbidge comes to the club after a successful college career that saw her compete and produce at both the NCAA D1 and USports levels with Robert Morris University and St.Francis-Xavier University respectively. Suokko, currently the team’s oldest player at 29-years-old, will begin her second season in Switzerland after a career that has seen her play all over the Northern Hemisphere, with stops in Tampere and Kuortane (FIN), Leksand (SWE), Olds (CAN), and Buffalo (USA). Suokko can be an offensive difference maker, and HCFG will need her to be at her best if they hope to make the playoffs this year. SC LANGENTHAL DAMEN Langenthal once again found themselves fighting to avoid relegation at the end of last season, after having had to do the same the year before. Avoiding the dreaded Relegation Round this season will be a tall order after losing last season’s number one goaltender Nadia Häner to SC Bern. Dayna Owen, a Canadian who most recently played in the Netherlands after six strong seasons of USports hockey for both the University of Alberta and the University of Calgary, is up for the task, and will step between the pipes for her first season in Switzerland. Veteran defender Sina Bachmann will return for her seventh season with the club, joined on the blue line by American sophomore Megan Cornell who came to the team last season from Sweden’s Färjestad (NDHL). Canadian forward Holly Reuther returns for a second season, after posting 12 points in 27 games last year. Italian national team veteran Samantha Gius will start her second season in Switzerland after winning eleven national championships with Italian club EV Bozen Eagles. Gius’ move to the more competitive PostFinance Women’s League coincides with Team Italy’s preparations for the 2026 Olympics, for which they automatically qualified as the Games’ host. Langenthal will need to find a way to improve their offence if they are to have any hope of climbing into the playoffs this season. NEUCHÂTEL HOCKEY ACADEMY DAMES After finishing the 2023-24 season in fourth place, and subsequently being bounced in the semi-finals of the playoffs by SC Bern, Neuchâtel will look to build on their recent success and reach the semis again. American defender Madison Truax returns after a Swiss rookie season that saw her register 24 points in 28 games. In July, the team also announced that 2023-24 top scorer Tatiana Onyshchenko of Poland had re-signed along with 10 Swiss-born players including ageless wonder Gaelle Bourquin, who registered 12 points in 26 games last season as a 45-year-old defender. On the other end of the age spectrum, Neuchâtel will see Swiss U18 national team forward Tanja Kunz return for her second full PFWL season, after putting up a respectable 14 points in 22 games as a rookie. Neuchâtel is building their team with an eye on sustainability and long-term success. Their combination of import players and homegrown talent should be fun to watch as the season progresses. ZSC LIONS FRAUEN With six championships since 2015-2016, Zürich is the reigning powerhouse of Swiss women’s hockey. The team has only gotten stronger this off-season, with the addition of imports Alena Polenská (CZE) and Josefine Holmgren (SWE). 34-year-old Polenská spent last season in Russia, where she showed that she is still a scoring threat, putting up 24 points in as many games for Agidel Ufa. Holmgren, the former captain of Swedish side Djurgården, is a veteran D who put up more than a point-per-game last season for Ambri-Piotta. The team’s captain and top-scorer, Swiss Sinja Leemann returns, after posting career-best numbers last season with 25 goals and 27 assists for 52 points in only 28 games. Leemann is only 22-years-old, and likely still has her best hockey ahead of her. Might fans see superstar Alina Müller back with ZSC Lions this year? The decorated Swiss forward (who played 6 games and scored 25 points for Zürich last season) will return to PWHL Boston when the league resumes play in late 2024. She is, after the inaugural PWHL season, Boston’s all-time leading scorer. With or without Müller, ZSC Lions will once again be a force to be reckoned with. EV ZUG When Zug earned promotion to the PostFinance Women’s League last spring, they did so with the help of bona fide Swiss star Lara Stalder. Stalder returned to Switzerland after 10 highly successful seasons abroad in the NCAA and Sweden’s SDHL, and lit the Swiss second league on fire, notching 129 points in only 17 games. Her teammate Noemi Ryhner managed 81 points in 16 games. Multiple Zug players averaged well over three points per game. While the team is unlikely to score at such a blistering pace in the top league, fans should not be surprised if Zug is competitive from the get-go. With Ryhner likely to be sidelined until mid-October with an ankle injury, the team can still depend on the contributions of Swiss national team players Ivana Wey and Lena-Marie Lutz, as well as Austrian veteran Annika Fazokas. While being a freshly promoted team is never easy, EV Zug, at least on paper, appears more than capable of avoiding immediate relegation.
