CWHL Website | ECAC Hockey Release
TROY, N.Y. – Sonja van der Bliek and Andie Le Donne, both of whom played ice hockey at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), were taken in the recently held Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) Draft. van der Bliek, a goaltender who graduated in 2011, was chosen 43rd overall by Brampton, while LeDonne, a defenseman who graduated in May, was taken in the seventh round, 10 spots higher.
The CWHL is a five-team league that began in May 2007 with the purpose to allow elite level players the opportunity to play after college and continue to work toward Olympic and National Team goals. With teams in Alberta, Boston, Montreal and Toronto, in addition to Brampton (Ontario), it is North America's largest professionally run elite women's hockey league.
van der Bliek, a native of Toronto, established 14 school records in her four years at Rensselaer, finishing with a 52-50-15 record, a 2.12 goals against average and a .915 save percentage. Among the standards she set were career marks in games played (117) and started (115) by a goalie, wins, saves (2662), minutes (7033:28) and shutouts (17). Among her single season records are games played (35) and started (35), wins (18), saves (820), minutes (2173:20) and shutouts (7).
Throughout her career van der Bliek was the team's Most Valuable Player twice, including after the 2008-09 season when the Engineers advanced to the ECAC Hockey Tournament Championship Game. She was an All-Tournament Team honoree that season. She also earned the league's Goalie of the Week award five times, garnered Weekly Honor Roll recognition 14 times and was ECAC Hockey All-Academic twice.
LeDonne, who also hails from Toronto, played 124 games in her RPI career, scoring five goals with 33 assists for 38 points. She had six assists in 32 contests as a senior after leading the team's blueliners in scoring with 12 points on three goals and nine assists in 31 games as a junior. Three of her goals came on the power play.
Her most productive season, points-wise, came in 2010-11 when she was a sophomore. That year LeDonne tallied 14 points, including a career-high 12 assists, in 31 contests. She was named to the ECAC Hockey Weekly Honor Roll on numerous occasions.
