Colgate University senior Danielle Serdachny, 22, of Edmonton, Alberta, attended the final class of her college career, a senior seminar on film and media, on Friday, May 3.
The next day, she put on a Toronto Blue Jays jersey, walked to the mound in the Toronto stadium escorted by Ace, the Jays’ mascot, and threw out the game’s first pitch.
She was so nervous she was shaking,
Kayle Osborne, of Ottawa, a Colgate senior and one of Serdachny’s best friends, said Serdachny told her afterward. But the pitch almost made it to home plate, close enough to count, Serdachny assured her.
“She said it was one of the coolest things she’s ever done,” Osborne added.
That kind of cool stuff is what happens when an ordinary college student, majoring in economics and film and media studies, closes her books, puts on an ice hockey jersey and turns into a budding superstar after hours.
Serdachny, Colgate’s team captain, played for the university for five years (having received an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and holds the record as the college’s all-time leading scorer.
And then in April, as a member of Team Canada playing at her second International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship – this year in Utica – Serdachny scored two goals and had two assists. It was the second goal that shot her into international headlines and the first-pitch gig in Toronto.
In overtime, during the gold medal game against the United States, the puck hit Serdachny in the leg, bounced off and practically landed at the end of her stick during a power play, she recalled. So she took a shot, getting it in the net to clinch the 6-5 victory against the reigning world champion who had beat Canada 1-0 in overtime in a preliminary round game.
“I think I was pretty shocked when I ended up scoring there,” Serdachny recalled. “There’s so many emotions that come with that, like a sense of excitement and pride and representing your country and knowing I had my loved ones in the stands. It took a while for me to really process what was going on.
“It’s everything you dream of growing up.”
Success
The weekend before the Blue Jays game, Serdachny attended an Edmonton Oilers game with her family and suddenly saw herself and her family up on the big screen as the announcer introduced her as the player who had scored the “golden goal.”
But when Serdachny left Colgate to attend the Blue Jays game, she kept apologizing…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at "ice hockey" – Google News…