sports HIGHlights NMLS#2289
Ice Sculpture Hockey star Elle Hartje explores family roots, grows personally during a pandemic-plagued season in Slovakia. STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
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lle Hartje was making a name for herself in women’s hockey at the dawn of the new year. The 20-year-old Yale University sophomore from Bloomfield Hills was averaging 1.29 assists per game, the highest average among NCAA Division I women’s hockey players. Hartje had six goals and 18 assists in 14 games for the Bulldogs (10-3-1), who were ranked No. 6 in the country, the highest ranking in program history.
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Hartje’s emergence is no accident. Anita Rival, Hartje’s aunt, also lived A decision that took her far out of in Bratislava until she was 4, moving her comfort zone and to the other with her parents to the U.S. in 1968. side of the world during a pandemic is Family ties were important, but paying huge dividends. hockey was Hartje’s focus while she Hartje lived during was in Slovakia. ABOVE: Elle Hartje scores the 2020-21 hockey She played for a the first of her two goals in club team — HC SKP season in Bratislava, her Slovakian club team’s Bratislava — that Slovakia, where Jan and 4-3 overtime loss to the Vienna Sabres in the Elite earned a bronze medal Eva Rival, her maternal Women’s Hockey League’s in the Elite Women’s grandparents, were born, 2021 playoff semifinals in Hockey League, lived as adults and got Budapest, Hungary. which has teams married.
MAGYAR JEGKRONG
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