ECAC Hockey announced two more individual awards Wednesday for the 2021-22 women’s hockey season.
The conference rookie of the Year is Cornell sophomore Lily Delianedis and coach of the year is Yale’s Mark Bolding.
Delianedis is the first Big Red skater to be honored with this award since Jillian Saulnier in 2012.
Delianedis came in and made an immediate impact for Cornell, leading all ECAC Hockey rookies with 22 points in league contests. Playing on the top line, she found the back of the net 11 times and dished out 11 assists. Finding a knack for the clutch, she scored three game-winning goals this season, including a key tally in the final game of the season that helped the Big Red clinch the No. 6 seed in the ECAC Hockey playoffs.
She was also strong in the faceoff circle, winning 259 draws for a 52 percent success rate. She won 10 or more faceoffs 13 different times this season.
Bolding is just the second Yale coach in program history to receive this honor, and the first since 2003 when Hillary Witt won the award.
Bolding has accomplished a lot with Yale in just two short years, breaking the program wins record in his first season before smashing that record again this year. The Bulldogs won a program-best 22 times this season, including 16 wins in ECAC Hockey play, finishing second in the regular-season standings. Yale was particularly strong at home under Bolding, finishing with just a pair of losses (12-2) at Ingalls Rink this year.
Bolding and the Bulldogs will participate in another program “first” this weekend as they’ll host the four team ECAC Hockey championship weekend at Ingalls Rink for the first time in program history.
