In Play(er) of the Week, we seek to highlight Wesleyan athletes or parts of games that deserve extra attention. 

Jenna Stevens ’24, a defender on the Wesleyan women’s ice hockey team, won high NESCAC honors last week. In addition to being the program’s first defender named to First Team All-NESCAC, she is the team’s first-ever NESCAC Defensive Player of the Year. Recording 31 blocks on the season, Stevens was an integral part of a Wesleyan team that saw its best record since 1999. The Argus sat down with Stevens to discuss the family business of hockey, pre-game superstitions, and how it felt to break a season record set before she was born.

The Argus: How did you first get into playing hockey?

Jenna Stevens: I started younger than most people, just because I had two older sisters that also played. So I just wanted to do everything they did. So I started skating—I think my dad said I was like, two or something when he got my first skates—and then joined a team and learned to skate at a really young age, too.

A: Was there a big hockey community in your town?

JS: Yeah. We had a school called Avon Old Farms—I’m from Avon, [Conn.]. They had a rink and everything because they’re a private school, so it was really convenient [and] close. It was a boys’ team, so I guess girls’ hockey wasn’t that big, but we were still allowed to play. It was still so much fun, and definitely supportive. 

A: What was it like playing on a boys’ team?

JS: It was fun. We were just young. I transferred to a girls’ team at 12 years old, but for the earlier years, I was on a boys’ team. It’s just messing around. It’s a good sport. Everyone loves the competitiveness; it wasn’t weird. It was just a really good positive environment.

A: Can you tell me a memory or a high point you have from high school or youth hockey? 

JS: My high school senior year, we were the eighth seed in the tournament, and so we were playing the number one team. We were down by three goals heading into the third period, and we scored our first goal with eight minutes left. And we ended up coming back and tied it up 3–3. And then we scored in overtime. It was just so much fun—again, my senior year, my last year there, and all my friends, the other seniors—it was such a good environment. We were always sure that we were going to win, and we had nothing to lose as the eighth seed. Literally [a] highlight reel moment.

A: What was your recruiting process like, and how did you end up choosing Wesleyan?

JS: I had an older sister that went here, [who] played hockey as well, and she knew right away that she loved it. I knew early on that we were the same kind of person and player, and we liked the same kind of coaching style. So I think that I was interested from a really early start. [Division III] recruiting is later in your high school years, junior and senior year, but I knew I wanted to go here my sophomore year in high school. I was mainly looking at NESCACs, but honestly I was kind of just doing that because my high school coach told me to have other options.

A: So did you have a chance to play with your sister? 

JS: Yeah. Her junior year—my freshman year—was COVID, and we didn’t have a season. But her senior year—my sophomore year—we got to play together, and it was so much fun.

A: Coming into this season, senior season, what were some of your expectations or goals for yourself? 

JS: I had friends that had recently graduated and they told me, “You’ll regret not making the most of it. Just go have fun. You’ll miss it so much.” And I think having that perspective of people constantly telling me, “Don’t take it for granted, don’t let any time go to waste,” that was one of my main goals. Just have fun and enjoy playing the sport. I think that was a good mindset that helped me just with playing. When you’re just doing it to have fun, you play better. 

A: How about for the team? What were some of your hopes or expectations for your guys’ performance? 

JS: There’s the standard hopes—doing well, having a successful season—but I think more specifically, we wanted to get ten wins in one season, because we had been stuck on nine for the past two seasons. We achieved that, which is awesome. We also wanted to sweep a team, and we did that, too. We wanted to beat ranked teams, and we did that. I feel like a lot of our goals played out. It just helped taking it game by game, and then it slowly all started to come together.

A: Do you have any pregame rituals or superstitions? 

JS: Yes. I always play soccer until six minutes before I have to get on the ice. Me and a few other of my teammates, we juggle, you know, just keep it up. I do that for almost the entirety of warm-ups. We do the typical dynamic warm-up and stretch, and then everyone disperses and does their own thing. But me and a few teammates always play soccer, and I’m always one of the last ones. I don’t know why. I just hate sitting in my gear, and I feel like that makes me nervous, so I literally wait until I have to go, go, go, to get everything on. I feel like that’s pretty much the main one. [In terms of] superstitions, I always put on my right before my left. So there’s a point at which you’re clothed on the right, but not on the left. Someone pointed that out to me the other day. I didn’t even know I did it.

A: Do you have a pump-up song?

JS: As a team, we collectively listen to “Crazy Frog” by Axel F. And that’s become our pump-up song, at least for this season. I really don’t know why it caught on; it just did. We’d always play it right when our coach was walking in to give the pregame talk, and then we would sing the fight song and we’d play it again. So we would just continue dancing from the fight song into this song.

A: Is there any significance behind your number, number five?

JS: Growing up, I was always number three. It was my dad’s number and then it was three siblings. But that was taken by a sophomore for my freshman year here. So there were a few other numbers, but I picked five because I’m the youngest in my family, so I’m the fifth, and then I was also born on Nov. 5. So five just seemed to be a good number for me. And I’ve slowly loved it. It’s become more of my number.

A: What’s a favorite memory from your time with Wesleyan hockey?

JS: There’s so many classic memories. Sweeping Middlebury—we’ve never done that before—and beating Amherst. Those are all good memories. But honestly, I feel like my favorite isn’t necessarily a hockey memory, an on-ice memory. It was my sophomore year, we were in Usdan, and we all got notified that our games that weekend were canceled again. And instead of being sad, we all found cardboard and sleds, and we all sledded on Foss together, which was so much fun. We did a team toboggan where we all just linked up and went down together. It was making the most of the situation. It was so much fun and definitely one of my favorite memories. 

A: If you had to pick one thing, what would you say makes the Wesleyan hockey team special? 

JS: This might be a basic answer, but our culture and our teammates. At least this year, we’re not the team that’s been at the top of the league for so long. We’re kind of the underdogs. And I think we have this underdog mindset, kind of like: “We can do it; why not us?” That mindset makes everything so much more fun. We’re going in there like we have nothing to lose, and it’s just good vibes. I think that on some teams it can be really frustrating when you’re caught up and you’re on top, and it’s not as fun when you have to keep proving yourself. Not that we don’t have anything to prove, but it’s fun when you’re the underdog and you go and you beat these teams. We’re a pretty good team now, but we still picture ourselves as these underdogs. If we work hard, it will pay off in the end. 

A: You guys just had your best season since 1999. How did it feel to be a part of the team that made that happen?

JS: I remember when I first heard that statistic, someone was like, “No one on our team was born yet.” So it’s a really cool fact. Once that sinks in, that’s just really cool that we’re remaking history. The fact that we were setting all these records and redoing things—I think that just helped build the good vibes and the positivity. 

A: Last week you earned high NESCAC honors: Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-NESCAC. What was your reaction when you heard that you’d won these awards?

JS: My coach texted me. She let me know. And I honestly didn’t know what Defensive Player of the Year was, because it’s the first time that this award is on the women’s hockey side. I guess it’s been a thing for [NESCAC men’s hockey] for the past few years, but I didn’t know that. It was so cool. Everyone was texting me, saying, “Good job!” but it was all my teammates, and it couldn’t have happened without them. So it was kind of everyone’s award. And I know the other girl who got Player of the Year from club hockey. We reached out and said good job to each other, so that was fun, too. 

A: Your teammate [Brigitte Goeler-Slough ’23 MA ’24] got Second Team All-NESCAC. How did it feel to receive your honors alongside her?

JS: [It felt] awesome. In past years, at least since I’ve been here, no one has made any team, so I feel like it shows how much our program has grown in the past two, three years. 

A: Finally, who are some of your biggest supporters? 

JS: Definitely my family. They’ve been supportive the whole time. And being the youngest, I was the last one playing hockey, so I think I had minimum three family members at every single one of my games. And then teammates. My [defense] partner, [Mairead Kennedy ’24], is my roommate, and she’s also a senior. I definitely wouldn’t have had the season I had without her. And then my coaches, the rest of the team, all my roommates, my friends, everyone. My roommates are athletes, too, so they get it and are supportive [of] me and Mairead. The people I surround myself with are very positive and understand the culture of athletics and academics. So, yeah. I’m very lucky.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Audrey Nelson can be reached at aanelson@wesleyan.edu.