Yale hockey player wins medal at Sochi

Yale's only representative at this year's winter Olympics will be coming home with a medal. Phoebe Staenz ’17 scored a game-tying third period goal for the Swiss women's ice hockey team in its bronze-medal match against Sweden in Sochi yesterday, helping lead the team to a 4–3 victory and a spot on the podium.

Staenz led the Swiss team in shots on goal for the Olympics with 26. A forward on the Yale women's team when she's not representing her native country, the freshman has been a valuable addition to the Bulldogs, leading the team in scoring and points and contributing to the team's best season in recent years. (They clinched their first berth in the ECAC playoffs since 2008 last weekend.)

Staenz will be back from Sochi just in time to join the Bulldogs' playoff run, but that's not all she's got on her plate. She told the Yale Daily News last month that she has had to turn in her academic assignments on time while away with the Swiss team. "I’ll be catching up later on the exams I have to take," she said.

She is the second Yale women's hockey player to win an Olympic medal—the first was Helen Resor ’09 who won bronze with the US team in 2006.