If Tara Watchorn’s line-chart philosophy in 2025-26 is anything like it was in 2024-25, this story won’t matter.
The only constant for the Boston University women’s hockey team last season was change. BU’s second-year head coach shuffled her lines almost without fail. Only in the postseason, when Watchorn shortened her bench significantly, did any kind of consistency arrive.
This was not because nothing was working. Rather, too many things were working for the Hockey East champions, with Watchorn opting to set her lines based on opponent, health and form. If that’s her plan again, there’s little use in projecting anything.
Then again, BU’s roster will be different this season. Much different. The Terriers graduated 10 upperclassmen — all but three of whom were significant contributors. Their replacements are a band of seven freshmen and two transfers, and with that level of roster turnover, a more reliable line chart could be in the cards.
In any case, think of this story as more of a roster hierarchy than a strict line projection. It’s based on player quality, rather than fit (save for one key exception) and Watchorn’s lines in October could look very different.
The Blog’s first offseason line projection for women’s hockey, below:
Top forward line: LW Luisa Welcke, C Lilli Welcke, RW Riley Walsh
One of the stories of BU’s postseason push, the Welcke-Walsh line exploded in February and March last season, combining for 14 points over four playoff games. The trio of juniors — whom Walsh refers to as the “triplets,” though she is not related to twin sisters Luisa and Lilli — started 2024-25 together, were quickly broken up, then reunited to start six of BU’s final seven games. In the one they didn’t start, they combined for a game-tying, third-period goal in the Hockey East semifinal.
The Welcke twins, in particular, surged in the spring. Their forecheck was dominant, their offensive creativity leveled up, and, critically, their goal-scoring did too. There were few, if any, Terriers playing better by the end of the year. And Walsh, a firecracker in the locker room, a pest in front of goal and a menace in clutch time, complements the twins perfectly.
This isn’t about Welcke, Welcke and Walsh simply being BU’s three best forwards (Sydney Healey would like a word). This is all about their ability as a collective — and with all three going into their senior year, it should be even better in 2025-26.
Second forward line: LW Sydney Healey, C Kaileigh Quigg, RW Clara Yuhn
Healey will live in BU lore forever after scoring the Hockey East-winning goal, but she was also the team’s leading scorer (15), point-getter (23) and easily its most reliable forward throughout 2024-25. She’ll surely wear a letter as a senior, and though she’ll likely move around the line charts when Watchorn needs her to, she’s a top-line player. Hence her slot here (she’s a righty but has played plenty on the left at BU).
Yuhn’s junior year was frustrating — it featured an enormous point drought in the middle and she didn’t do much besides score. But she was as clutch as it gets in the postseason, including perhaps the best individual goal a Terrier scored all year to tie the Hockey East final in the third period. Quigg, meanwhile, was a spring-semester revelation, centering the top line four consecutive games during a critical stretch before earning postseason shifts as a freshman on a very short bench. Her size and speed alone make her one of BU’s most important young pieces.
Watchorn never used this combination last season, but Quigg played with both Healey and Yuhn plenty. Whether or not they actually play together, all three have earned the right to be top-six forwards.
Third forward line: LW Lexie Bertelsen, C Anežka Čabelová, RW Greta Henderson
Perhaps this is an unlikely combination, given it features a transfer and two freshmen. But purely from a roster hierarchy standpoint, freshmen Bertelsen and Čabelová and junior St. Cloud State transfer Henderson are probably BU’s most exciting newcomers.
Bertelsen made Canada’s U-18 World Championship roster this past year and recorded two assists in six games on her way to a gold medal. Čabelová represented Czechia in that same tournament two years prior as a 16-year-old, then made Czechia’s senior team for the World Championships as a 17-year-old. In 57 total international games across all levels, she has 12 goals and 26 assists.
Then there’s Henderson, who finished two seasons at a competitive WCHA program with seven goals and nine assists, occasionally cracking the top six.
Fourth forward line: LW Neely Nicholson, C Mia Vergilii, RW Lola Reid
The most intriguing of this trio is easily Reid, who, mind-bendingly, has a Hockey East player of the month award on her resume despite finishing her freshman year as a barely-playable forward. She proved last October she can score goals — pretty or gritty — but over the next five months, she didn’t show she could do much else and dropped to Watchorn’s 13th forward because of it. She’ll need to expand her game to regain her status as a key piece.
In this projected lineup, Reid plays with a fellow Shattuck-St. Mary’s alum in freshman Mia Vergilli. With 20 points on Shattuck’s prestigious prep team to her name and the ability to play center, Vergilli will arrive at BU with immediate pedigree. Nicholson, now a junior, was an everyday forward last season but finished with only two goals and four assists.
Top defensive pair: LHD Keira Healey, RHD Maeve Kelly
If BU only elects one captain again, Kelly seems like the safest bet. Watchorn raved about her last season — at one point saying “she might model our standards more than anyone else I’ve ever seen.” Kelly’s consistency and decision-making, plus an expanding offensive game, made her a critical part of a standout defensive core last season. As a senior, she’ll be the core’s unquestioned leader, and perhaps the entire team’s, too.
Healey, the younger sister of Sydney, started every game as a freshman and finished with seven points. She had some shaky moments and didn’t score, but she saw significant time on the power play down the stretch and survived a nail-biting postseason without a costly error (barely).
Healey and Kelly didn’t play together often last season, but they’re BU’s best returning blue-liners.
Second defensive pair: LHD Ella Belfry, RHD Maeve Carey
Belfry feels like a crucial portal add. With two years under her belt at ECAC powerhouse Colgate — which made a Frozen Four and an NCAA regional final while she was there — Belfry brings needed experience to a defensive core that lost a ton of it. Senior Maggie Hanzel and graduate students Julia Shaunessy and Tamara Giaquinto drove this group in 2024-25. Perhaps Belfry, who will be a junior, can help assume the reins.
Carey will enter her senior year fresh off an injury that sidelined her through the end of her first season at BU — but she was a pleasant surprise out of the portal, and knows Watchorn well from their time together at Stonehill. Belfry and Carey, like Healey and Kelly, should be strong defensive pairing.
The big question, though — how much offense can this core provide? Hanzel, Shaunessy and Giaquinto combined for 13 goals and 49 points last season. Across their entire careers, Belfry, Carey, Healey and Kelly have just 13 and 67.
Third defensive pair: LHD Avery Supryka, RHD Tessa Demain
Watchorn might opt to pull one of the four defenders mentioned above down to this third pairing, to avoid throwing a freshman and an inexperienced sophomore into the fire together.
Supryka — who committed in September 2022, before Watchorn got to BU — will arrive on Comm. Ave with some pedigree. She made Canada’s U-18 team in 2023-24 (but didn’t play) and was a productive player for the OWHL’s Whitby Wolves last season. Perhaps, she could move up to play with Kelly or Carey, providing both her and Demain with a more experienced partner.
And Demain might need it, because she only played 13 games as a freshman. Called upon to replace an injured Carey in the spring, she was shaky early before settling in, though Watchorn didn’t play her much during the postseason.
Goaltenders: Mari Pietersen, Sydney Fogu, Jackie Wright
It’s Pietersen’s net until there’s any reason for it not to be, especially after BU didn’t add another goalie out of the portal following Callie Shanahan’s graduation.
Watchorn started Pietersen in nine games last season. Initially, it seemed like an effort to prepare her to assume Shanahan’s net in 2025-26, but it soon became a legitimate win-now option, such was the quality of the sophomore’s play. She finished the year with a .911 save percentage, three shutouts, and a Hockey East defender of the week award.
Fogu should be her freshman backup, while Wright — at just 5-foot-3 — will likely be an emergency option.
