Monday, 25 September 2023

Wild Women’s Roster Complete

The DMUK Widnes Wild Women's Elizabath Loss (Photo by Wil Evans)

The DMUK Widnes Wild women’s team have completed their roster for the forthcoming 2023/24 WNIHL season with the return of 6 more players from last year’s team and the arrival of a new player.

Experienced centre Elizabeth Loss was one of the original Manchester Phoenix team that moved to Widnes in 2015 and, in her 6 seasons with the Wild women, has played 45 games, scoring 4 goals and 16 assists - and never picking up a single penalty minute.

Liz was a key member of the Widnes team that won the 2019/20 Division 1 North league title and finished as runners up last season. 

Commenting on her return for the new season, Loss said: “I’m feeling very positive about this season. We had a really good season last year and we know what we need to work on to get to the play offs again and win this year.”

Suzie Miller in action for the Wild women (Photo by John Lewis)

Suzie Miller is back for her 4th season in Widnes colours, having originally joined the Wild women for the 2019/20 title winning season.  In that time she has played 31 games, contributing 3 assists from her defensive role.  Behind the scenes, Suzie is also a qualified coach and manager.

Miller said on her re-signing: “I am excited to go into the new season with an existing team who have come together well, with some new faces ready for the upcoming challenges”.

Katie Adshead returns for 5th season with the team, having originally joined as part of the big experiment 2018/19 season. She has notched up 53 matches in that time, scoring 2 goals and 6 assists with 22 penalty minutes and was another key member of the 2019/20 title winning season.

Natalie Buckles joined the Wild women for the post-Covid 2021/22 WPL season and is now back for her third campaign. She has played 18 games for Widnes, scoring 1 goal and 1 assist.  Buckles is also a qualified coach, has occasionally helped on the bench at Wild NIHL men’s games and also works with the juniors.  She also plays recreational hockey with the Widnes-based Earle Road Elks and Cheshire Pistons teams. 

Olivia Wilson returns to the Wild women for her third season in Widnes colours, having originally joined in 2021.  She previously played WNIHL league hockey for the Whitley Bay Squaws but also has an impressive background in University Hockey where she has notched up almost 100 games playing for Newcastle, London and Scottish teams.

Wilson has played 22 games for Widnes to date, contributing 1 assist.

Sophie Hill was a new player to the Wild women’s team last season. She has made just 1 appearance so far – against Grimsby in March - but scored an assist and was named Most Valuable Player for the game.

The new arrival on the Wild women’s team is Katya Oliver who previously played for the Chelmsford Cobras in the Women’s Premier League and U16 girls’ hockey for Bracknell.  She has most recently played two seasons of university hockey with Manchester Metros, making 30 appearances and scoring 3+5.  

The DMUK Widnes Wild women play their first game of the new season on Sunday 1st October when they take on the Grimsby Wolves at Planet Ice Widnes, 4.25pm face off.