Making the save: Emerance Maschmeyer

To celebrate the Winter Olympics and our partnership with the Canadian Olympic Committee, we’re profiling COC athletes at Smith. This week: goalie Emerance Maschmeyer.

Kingston, ON – Emerance Maschmeyer, from Bruderheim, AB, isn’t kidding when she says her family is really, really big on hockey. She was just three when she first played; her sister went to university in the U.S. on a hockey scholarship; two of her brothers play pro in Germany.

At seven, Emerance tried goal for the first time and was soon between the pipes for good. “The thing I love about goal is you can be the difference maker. You can steal a game for your team.”

Among her career highlights: gold with Canada’s U18 team at the World Championships in 2012; she played for Harvard at university; and she won three silver World Championship medals with Canada’s senior women’s team.

Now in her second year as a pro in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, playing for Les Canadiennes in Montreal, Emerance, 23, hopes to eventually start a family business. That’s one reason she enrolled in the Certificate in Business program at Smith.

Her favourite hockey moment so far? The gold medal game against the U.S. at the World Championships in Kamloops, BC two years ago. “The arena was packed, the crowd was cheering. We ended up losing 1-0 in overtime, but it was a real goalie battle. After the game, I got a standing ovation. I remember tearing up when that happened.”