In “Shoresy”, a TV series that follows the fictional Sudbury Blueberry Bulldogs hockey team, the players often remind viewers that “goalies are always weird.” Sophia Will ’26, the starting goalie for Middlebury women’s hockey, admits that being a hockey goalie does require a certain weirdness.
“I feel like you have to have some aspect of you that you’d choose to be in a position where people are shooting a rubber puck at you,” Will said in an interview with the Campus.
Regardless of what is actually needed to be a hockey goalie, Will has it. Last Saturday, as the Panthers played Colby in the NESCAC quarterfinals, Will became the all-time leader in career saves in Middlebury women’s hockey history. Playing over four hours and reaching triple overtime, Will also blocked 61 shots — three short of the most saves ever in a single game for the program.
Will’s journey to becoming a goalie started when she was six years old.
Growing up in a city like Buffalo, NY, she found it natural that many of her peers played hockey in the streets and on the ice. Hoping to join the rest of the boys playing hockey in her neighborhood, Will convinced her parents to let her switch from gymnastics and allow her to start hockey.
“Everyone got a chance to play goalie because it was just a house league. I think I let in, like, 10 goals, but I thought it was so cool,” Will said.
Will quickly took to the game, becoming the first in her immediate family to play hockey, or to even skate in an organized fashion. By the 10U age division, having received a free pair of used goalie pads, Will could focus seriously on her role in front of the net.
“It kind of just took off from there,” Will said.
Will continued to switch positions, playing as a goalie for the 12U team while serving as a player for her 10U team. It was soon clear where her passion resided.
By middle school, Will was set on playing in college. An NCAA rule change meant that players could no longer be recruited by college programs as eighth graders, so any commitments had to wait until high school.
Will attended a Catholic all-girls high school, and their hockey players had to combine with those from other Catholic schools in the area to form a team. Will simultaneously played for the Buffalo Bisons youth team, through which she completed most of her training and college recruiting.
The Bisons’ program fell apart during Covid-19. To be off the ice at length as a sophomore — the peak recruiting time for college hockey — was certainly a challenge, but Will was persistent. After training under numerous goalie coaches, who together brought a mix of Division I, NHL and Middlebury experience, Will committed to Middlebury in the summer of her junior year of high school.
After four years of Panther hockey, Will has continued to feel the same joy in front of the net that she did as a six-year-old in her house league, breaking numerous school records in the process. Along with her two records mentioned prior, Will’s 581 saves this season made her the first Middlebury women’s hockey goalie to pass the 500 mark in a single season.
“I had no idea I even broke that until Midd Athletics posted it on their Instagram,” Will said.
As always, Will was preoccupied with the game — a theme in her hockey career. She lives for the competitive aspect, and when it comes to hockey, more is almost always better.
“Yeah, we lost [against Colby], but that game was probably one of the most fun games I’ve ever played. It was basically like playing two games back-to-back. Whenever we’d have a timeout or break, everyone on the bench was laughing and having fun,” Will said.
Goalies in all sports face unique challenges, but being the sole player in front of the net doesn’t faze Will.
“I kind of thrive off the pressure,” Will said. “Maybe that’s my goalie psycho mindset, but I love the games that we go into, and it’s like ‘this is going to be a tough game.’ I would rather face 30-something shots than have a game where I face 10.”
Facing 30 shots in a game does have its downsides, though. The body stings when a shot finds a gap in the pads, and the deflection of a puck off one’s helmet is a uniquely unenviable experience.
“The worst is getting hit in your head,” Will said. “Sometimes it smells like burnt rubber [and] you have to shake it off a little bit.”
After one thousand, seven hundred seventeen saves, days worth of in-game competition and countless whiffs of burnt rubber, Will’s career as a Panther has come to an end. Christy Picard ’96, the prior career saves record holder, reached out to Will after the Colby game. Will hopes that one day she can pay it forward, too.
“Right now it’s really cool that my name is in the record books, but I do hope that someday somebody comes in here and I can reach out to them and say ‘congrats, that’s insane, so proud of you.’”
Will plans to take a short break from hockey after college, but hometown charity games and beer league play are in the cards. For now, though, one part of her game is certain.
“I have been told that I’m one of the more normal goalies that people have played with, which I take as a compliment.”
Simon Schmieder '26 (he/him) is a Senior Sports Editor.
Simon is an avid runner and biker and enjoys spending time outdoors. He is a philosophy and political science joint major with a minor in German, in addition to being a Philly sports fan.
