Remember the UAA hockey team? It’s back in action this week

Among the things Matt Curley inherited when he became UAA's new hockey coach is a crazy schedule.

In case you've forgotten, the Seawolves opened their season nearly three weeks ago by splitting a nonconference series with Colorado College.

If you have forgotten, you're forgiven — the Seawolves have all but vanished since then. They've gone more than two weeks without another game, and when they return to action Friday against Ferris State in Big Rapids, Michigan, 19 days will have passed since their 4-3 win over Colorado College on Oct. 7.

"We were just kind of starting to get in a nice rhythm," Curley said Tuesday, the day before leaving town for his first road trip with the team. "Our exhibition game, the CC series, our Green and Gold game — we were moving right along with things, so it was nice to get into a rhythm. We lose that by having this little hiatus."

Curley said he's trying to emphasize the good things about having a two-week break one week into the season. Early season injuries can heal, attention can be paid to deficiencies revealed against Colorado College, players can become better acquainted with the new coaching staff.

"It also gives guys a chance who weren't hungry before to really be champing at the bit to get going again," Curley said.

Having said that, Curley admitted it's a weird way to begin a season.

"It's not necessarily ideal," he said. "In an ideal world we would have played at least one game in those off-weeks. But this gives us a chance to practice on what we felt was important.

"It'll be interesting to see that first 20 minutes. It might be a little tough out of the gate."

Among the nation's 60 Division I hockey teams, 47 already have played three or more games. The Nanooks, for example, have played six.

While UAA has a couple of more off-weeks this season, there are no more two-week breaks in the schedule. But there's another difficult stretch coming up.

After the Ferris State series, UAA returns to Anchorage for back-to-back home series against Bemidji State (Nov. 2-3) and Bowling Green (Nov. 9-10).

Then the team disappears for nearly two months. It plays 10 straight road games before returning to Sullivan Arena the first week of January.

"Like anything, you can look at things in a positive way or a negative way, and the way we see it is it's a way to jell, to test our character," Curley said. "The thing with all these road trips early on, we get paid back with home games later on.

"We'll go into hostile environments and see what we're made of. Hopefully all of that will put us in position here in the second half (of the season) to have some success in front of home fans on home ice.

"That's the hope and that's the idea. We hope to steal a few on the road here in the next couple weeks."

Seawolves pick captains

The UAA hockey team won't have a captain this season, but it will have four assistant captains.

Two seniors, a junior and a sophomore will share leadership positions, the team announced Tuesday — seniors Nils Rygaard and Cam Amantea, junior Nolan Nicholas and sophomore Eric Sinclair.

The four were the top picks in a vote by the players, UAA coach Matt Curley said. Coaches then decided to make them all assistant captains.

"We spoke to the guys about this and we felt as a coaching staff, and to be honest as a team, that a collective leadership group was appropriate this season," Curley said.

Of the four, Sinclair is the only one who appeared in every game last season, when the Seawolves went 4-26-4. A defenseman from Kenora, Ontario, he totaled two goals and four assists and was named to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association's all-rookie team.

The other three players were all members of last season's WCHA all-academic team.

Rygaard, a forward from Norrkoping, Sweden, has registered five goals and 11 assists in 68 career games, including three points in 23 games last season.

Amantea, a forward from Calgary, has three goals and four assists in 40 career games.

Nicholas, of Thunder Bay, Ontario, was an assistant captain last season as a sophomore. He has three assists in 64 career games.

Chelimo earns national honor

Emmah Chelimo, who earned her second straight victory last weekend for the UAA cross-country team, was named the Division II national athlete of the week by the U.S. Track and Field & Cross Country Coaches Association.

Chelimo, a junior from Kenya, won the 6-kilometer women's race at the Western Washington Invitational on Saturday.

Earlier in the season, she won the women's race at the UNLV Invitational, beating a field with many Division I runners. In her only other race this season, Chelimo placed second to Olympic skier Rosie Brennan at the Skinny Raven Classic in Anchorage.

Besides the national honor, Chelimo this week earned runner-of-the-week honors in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference based on her victory at Western Washington.

Teammate Felix Kemboi, a sophomore from Kenya who won the men's race at Western Washington, was named the men's runner of the week.

Men rank 5th in GNAC hoops poll

The UAA men's basketball team is picked to finish fifth this season in the 11-team Great Northwest Athletic Conference, according to a coaches' poll.

UAA, which returns five players from last season's 15-14 team, tied for fourth place in the league last season.

Coaches predict that Saint Martin's, 25-8 last season, will win the GNAC.

The Saints drew nine out of 11 first-place votes, with the other two going to defending GNAC champion Western Oregon, which ranks third in the preseason poll. Seattle Pacific is picked to finish second. UAF is picked ninth.

UAA starts the season on Friday, Nov. 2 when it hosts Antelope Valley at 7 p.m. at the Alaska Airlines Center.

GNAC preseason poll

1. Saint Martins (25-8 last season)
2. Seattle Pacific (17-12)
3. Western Oregon (31-2)
4. Western Washington (21-8)
5. UAA (15-14)
6. MSU-Billings (13-18)
7. Northwest Nazarene (13-13)
8. Central Washington (15-13)
9. UAF (11-15)
10. Simon Fraser (10-18)

This story has been edited to reflect that Saint Martin's is the preseason pick to win the GNAC.