Boston College Women's Hockey 2026-27 Preview: Thomas, Maffeo, and Murphy Lead Young Core Ready to Compete

Boston College’s 2025-26 came to a shock ending as Vermont came into Conte Forum and stunned the Eagles in the Hockey East quarterfinals, the first time the program failed to advance to the conference semifinals since the 2022 tournament.

The Eagles have been the most consistent team in Hockey East, finishing in the top-four of the conference standings for sixteen consecutive seasons but have struggled to cement themselves as a true competitor in recent years. Boston College has gone trophyless for the better part of a decade, with the last trophies coming in 2018 when the team took home both the Beanpot and Hockey East regular season title. The Eagles are expected to find themselves in a similar spot again this season, picked to finish third in Hockey East but a ways off of the two title favorites, Northeastern and Connecticut.

An exceptionally young roster featuring just two senior skaters may be a year away from truly threatening the nation's elite but a core built around a trio of All-Hockey East selections and a pair of College Hockey on SI Preseason All-Americans give the Eagles the top-end talent to compete with anyone in Hockey East.

Forwards

The presumptive top-line of Ava Thomas and Sammy Taber on the wings with Maxim Tremblay at center got a taste of playing together last season before Emma Conner solidified herself as the first-line center and will now have a chance to spend a full season together. The three led the Eagles in scoring last season, combining for 97 points.

Thomas paced the offense with 19 goals, 27 assists, and 46 points in one of the best freshman seasons for the Eagles since Daryl Watts won the Patty Kazmaier Award as a freshman. After sharing Hockey East’s Rookie of the Year honors with Stryker Zablocki, look for Thomas to contend for a Kazmaier Award of her own as she looks to join Watts and Alex Carpenter as Eagles to be named the best player in collegiate hockey.

No player on the roster brings more experience than Sammy Taber who has already dressed in 104 games across three seasons. In those three seasons, she’s posted 97 points and led the Eagles in scoring in both her freshman and sophomore year. After winning the 2023-24 Hockey East Rookie of the Year Award and being named to the All-Hockey East second team in 2024-25, her individual production took a slight step back as a junior, primarily to help provide opportunities for Thomas. Expect her and Thomas to be among the nation’s best dynamic duos.

Maxim Tremblay solidified her spot as a top-six forward as the season progressed, bouncing between wing and center. With the Eagles thin up the middle, the former Stanstead standout will primarily be used as a center and will have the opportunity to be surrounded by talented scorers. In her freshman season, Tremblay posted eleven goals and eleven assists en route to being selected to the Hockey East All-Rookie team.

A trio of juniors project to round out the top-six, as Sage Babey, Tricia Piku, and Lauren Glaser will be counted on to be consistent contributors. Babey joined from Merrimack before last season and contributed eleven points in her first season with the Eagles. Piku was primarily used on the fourth-line a year ago but will slide up as she won more faceoffs a year ago than any other returner on the opening day roster that is not on the top line. Glaser took a step back to eleven points in 2025-26 from an impressive freshman season in 2024-25 that saw her record 17 points. Glaser will need to look more like her freshman year self, if not better, and her classmates will need to take another step forward if they want to be a productive second unit, the 24 points from a year ago will not be nearly enough.

Jansen Lucas rounds out the group of returners available from opening night, as the senior will step back into a full-time role for the first time since her freshman year. Lucas played in all 36 games in 2023-24 before playing in just one the following season and 18 a year ago. She’ll be on the line chart at a minimum until Emily Mara is available and will have every opportunity to stick on it for the whole season.

Emily Mara will miss at a minimum the first eleven games as she finishes up her soccer season, with a chance to play in the Battle of Comm Ave. However, her absence could be extended if the women’s soccer program goes on a run, the Eagles are currently 18th in RPI and Mara is a big reason why, she’s second on the squad in points and assists with four goals and five assists in eleven games. A national tournament run could see the sophomore be unavailable for the entire first semester, putting her first game on New Year’s Eve against Bemidji State. When she returns, she’ll provide another piece on the bottom-six but expect it to take a few weeks for her to get up to game speed and be productive.

Five freshman forwards will compete for four spots on the opening day line chart, with all of the first-years expected to contribute early. Jillian Klein has the most experience at center of the group, playing the position for Shattuck St. Mary’s, where she notched over 100 points in her three years with the program. Mila Advani also joins from Shattuck and was invited to training camp with the USA U19 team. A pair of local recruits out of the NEPSAC head to Chestnut Hill, Sawyer Miller from Dexter Southfield and Sarah Powers from Phillips Academy. Both players were selected as All-NEPSAC Honorable Mention and come from the most consistent pathway to the Boston College roster. Sydney Semiga is the lone Canadian forward recruit in the class, joining after a standout hockey and golf career at Holy Trinity Catholic.

Defense

Few teams nationally have a defensive pairing with as much offensive upside as Boston College’s Madelyn Murphy and Olivia Maffeo. Murphy broke onto the scene during her freshman year, being named to the All-Hockey East first team after posting 21 points on eight goals and thirteen assists. Maffeo also received postseason honors, being selected to the All-Hockey East third team after a career high fourteen points.

The pair give Boston College flexibility on the powerplay, with a unique look being used at the end of the 2025-26 season. Murphy quarterbacked the top unit with Ava Thomas trading places with Maffeo to join her on the blue line while Maffeo slid down from the blue line to the net front. Sammy Taber and Emma Conner were used near the two half-walls, with Taber likely to remain in her spot while Tremblay slides up to replace Conner.

The second unit projects to feature a pair of newcomers to the program, with Grace Bickett joining from defending national champion Wisconsin and Penelope Lavoie entering from Stanstead College. During her time with one of the top prep programs in Canada, Lavoie racked up 178 points on 59 goals and 119 assists, including 65 points on 17 goals and 48 assists in her final season. In that 2025-26 season, Lavoie was named the Defenseman of the Year in the JWHL, the top major-juniors style women’s hockey league, featuring programs across Canada and the United States.

A trio of returners round out a defensive core with just seven players listed on the roster, resulting in every defensewomen needing to dress. Juniors Jamie Griswold, Kiera Dempsey, and sophomore Alania Dunn compete for spots on the third pairing, while the remaining one slots in as the extra skater. Griswold, the daughter of former Olympic gold medalist A.J. Mleczko, dressed for sixty games over the last two years, playing in a variety of roles. Kiera Dempsey appeared in every game in 2025-26, recording four points and twenty blocked shots as a consistent third pair defensewoman. Alaina Dunn joined the Eagles before last season after featuring on the United States U18 national team in 2024 and appeared in all but one game during her freshman season, recording three assists.

Goaltending

The biggest question on the roster will come in net after Grace Campbell’s departure. Bailey Callaway enters the season as the presumptive starter but there’s no guarantee she’ll hold the position for the whole season. The senior has appeared in twelve games, making five starts including one as a junior, a 34 save performance to earn the Eagles a bounceback win against Maine.

Bella Pomarico is the other returning senior, appearing in her first collegiate game last season as a junior. The five-foot-four netminder stopped all seven shots she faced in mop-up duty during a blowout victory against Providence.

Avah Sedore joins the Eagles with an opportunity to compete for the backup spot immediately and potentially the starting role by the end of her first year. In her time with the Barrie Jr. Sharks in Ontario, Sedore set the program record for shutouts and led the team to the 2023 CISA Hockey Championship.

Incoming transfers

Katie Crowley hit the portal to add a pair of reinforcements from the WCHA as the 20th year head coach looks to repeat the formula that worked with Emma Conner a year ago.

Grace Bickett brings championship pedigree to a program that has continually come up short in the biggest games of the season. The junior defensewoman was part of two national championships with Wisconsin, playing in a total of 28 games, and will step into a bigger role in her first season with the Eagles.

Callen Rice comes over after a relatively quiet freshman season at St. Thomas, posting just two assists in 35 games. She’ll be counted on to get on the score sheet more consistently in a middle-six role for Boston College, with the hope that she can provide much needed scoring depth.

Departures

Boston College saw eight players depart following the 2025-26 season, with six graduating and two skaters hitting the transfer portal. The group featured four forwards, three defensewomen, and one goaltender.

No loss will be harder to replace than Grace Campbell, who departed campus with the second most saves in program history and joined the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres over the summer. Campbell has played nearly every minute over the past three seasons, with Bailey Callaway getting a total of five starts in the span, leaving questions on if the Eagles have enough experience between the pipes.

Emma Conner spent just one season with Boston College but it was an impactful one, with the graduate student leading Hockey East in blocked shots and taking home the conference’s Best Defensive Forward Award.

Other graduates include former captain Jade Arnone, now with HD71 in Sweden’s SDHL, Cailin Flynn, the runnerup on the team with 57 blocked shots, Kara Goulding, who dressed in 136 of 143 possible games, and Kate Hamm, who posted 44 career points.

The biggest transfer portal loss will be Alanna Devlin, who joins a Penn State program fresh off a final four appearance. Devlin showed potential to be a future top-liner for the Eagles during her freshman season, posting 15 points in 2024-25, but showed some mild regression, dropping to seven points as a sophomore a year ago. Had she stayed she would have centered the second line for Boston College.

Shea Frost heads to Delaware to play her fifth year, looking for more consistent playing time and a bigger role in her final season of collegiate hockey. Frost played in a career-high 21 games in 2025-26 after missing 2024-25 with injury and appearing in a total of four games during her first two seasons.

Projected Line Chart

Sammy Taber (Sr.) - Maxim Tremblay (So.) - Ava Thomas (So.)
Sage Babey (Jr.) - Tricia Piku (Jr.) - Lauren Glaser (Jr.)
Callie Rice (So.) - Jillian Klein (Fr.) - Sara Powers (Fr.)
Sydney Semiga (Fr.) - Emily Mara (So.)* - Jansen Lucas (Sr.)

Madelyn Murphie (So.) - Olivia Maffeo (Jr.)
Grace Bickett (Jr.) - Penelope Lavoie (Fr.)
Alaina Dunn (So.) - Kiera Dempsey (Jr.)
Jamie Griswold (Jr.)

Bailey Callaway (Sr.)
Avah Sedore (Fr.)
Bella Pomarico (Sr.)

Scratched Forwards: Mila Advani (Fr.) - Sawyer Merrill (Fr.)

* Mara is unavailable until the end of the Boston College women’s soccer season…Lucas to fourth line center, Advani to fourth line right wing during absence

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