After serving as head coach of Stonehill College, Tara Watchorn (CAS’12) was named head coach of the Terrier women’s hockey team last spring, succeeding longtime head coach Brian Durocher (Wheelock’78). “We’re going to be an aggressive, attack-style, defensive team,” Watchorn says.

Women's Hockey

With a New Face Behind the Bench, Women’s Hockey Is Set to Kick Off Season

Terriers to face Northeastern in home-and-home weekend series

It’s the dawn of a new era for BU women’s hockey, and the buzz around Walter Brown Arena is palpable. 

That excitement has everything to do with the arrival of Tara Watchorn (CAS’12), who starred for the Terriers from 2008 to 2012 and has become the second head coach in program history after legendary bench boss Brian Durocher announced his retirement at the end of last season.

Watchorn was an assistant under Durocher (Wheelock’78) from 2016 to 2020, before becoming women’s hockey head coach at Stonehill College, where she earned 2022-2023 New England Women’s Hockey Alliance Coach of the Year in the Skyhawks’ inaugural season as a program. The new Terrier coach was a two-time Hockey East All-Star as a defender at BU, recording 21 goals and 63 assists over four seasons with the Terriers. She also suited up for Team Canada for 11 seasons, winning a gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics. 

She’ll have her first chance to lead the Terriers in a regular season game this weekend, when BU takes on Northeastern in a home-and-home series on October 6 and 7.

Watchorn is tasked with turning around a program that has struggled to win in recent years. The team has a combined record of 29-41-9 over the last three seasons. She plans to turn that around with a coaching style that emphasizes an aggressive attack and attention to detail.

“We stop at the net in practice, we are hard in and out of drills, and I think you’re going to see a team that brings that over to the game,” Watchorn says. “We’re going to be an aggressive, attack-style, defensive team that takes away time and space.”

An emphasis on offense has been a difference this year. In preseason training, collegiate coaches almost always focus on defensive strategy first, before delving into offense. Watchorn has flipped that norm on its head. 

“You sell defense with offense. It was cool to work backwards and show them the answer key,” she says. “You can teach so much defensively through video, so when you look at the relatively short preseason that we have going into our games and you think about the on-ice time we get, the value of being able to work on your offensive game, I think, is so high.”

Cocaptain Madison Cardaci (CAS’24) says the team has appreciated the shift in structure. “I think it gave us a little fire under our butts to put the puck in the net,” Cardaci says. “People are really buying into the system.”

To improve on last year’s mark, the Terriers will need to up their offensive production. BU scored the sixth-most goals of the 10 Hockey East schools last season, and ranked eighth in shots on net. The Terriers also lost their most prolific offensive performer, Julia Nearis (CAS’23), who’s playing a fifth year at Quinnipiac. 

“We talked about goal scoring first, and how to generate quality chances. It’s not just about getting quantity,” Watchorn says. “How do you upgrade the puck? How do you put yourself in a position to use your skills to their fullest potential? That’s why we’re hopeful that we’re going to get production up and down our lineup.”

So far, so good. The Terriers dismantled McGill University, 5-2, in an exhibition game in Montreal on September 30, thanks to five different goal scorers. 

But the season-opening series with Northeastern will be a true test for the Terriers. The Huskies, who have won six consecutive Hockey East titles, are ranked seventh in the nation. The first game will be at Walter Brown Arena on Friday, October 6, at 6 pm, then the Terriers make the short trip to Matthews Arena to face the Huskies on Saturday at 1:30 pm. To win those games, the Terriers will need to rely on their veteran core of six seniors, including Cardaci and cocaptain Nadia Mattivi (Questrom’23, MET’24).

Mattivi, who also plays for the Italian national team, was captain last season, setting career-highs in goals (6) and assists (11). Cardaci is wearing the “C” for the first time this year. 

“This has been a dream for me all my life, to be captain of the women’s hockey team, and it’s just so important,” Cardaci says. “I love my teammates so much, and I’m so bought into wanting the best for everyone else.”

Other key veterans include Christina Vote (CAS’25), Lacey Martin (CAS’24), and Brooke Disher (CAS’26), who each recorded over 15 points for the team last season. Twins Lilli Weicke (CAS’26) and Luisa Welcke (CAS’26), who transferred from Maine to BU this fall, both made the Hockey East All-Rookie Team as Black Bears last season and are expected to play a key role. The Terrier incoming class of six freshmen includes highly regarded goaltender prospect Mari Pietersen (Sargent’27), who won the 2022 U18 IIHF World Championship with Team Canada. 

The talent on the Terrier roster, both returning and new, has Cardaci excited about the team’s potential.

“We have a super great culture on and off the ice, and we can see it on the ice,” she says. “I think we’re going to be a powerful team that no one wants to mess with.”

The BU women’s hockey team hosts Northeastern in its regular season opener Friday, October 6, at 6 pm, at Walter Brown Arena. Tickets range from $5 to $8. Admission is free to students with a BU Sports Pass. Next day, Saturday, October 7, the two teams go head-to-head again, this time at NU’s Matthews Arena, at 1:30 pm. Both games can be streamed on ESPN+.