High Point University women’s hockey captain and Elon senior Melanie Joy “MJ” Volpe had her biggest birthday surprise when she scored a hat trick that secured a 9-2 win against Virginia Tech University at the Atlantic Coast Collegiate Hockey League Championships. However, she said her dream would be to wear an Elon women’s hockey jersey, when in reality there is only a men’s club hockey team on campus.
“The championship game was on my 21st birthday,” Volpe said. “I scored a hat trick. Never in my life have I done that. I felt everything. The universe aligned so perfectly that day.”
The Colorado-native had gone to Kents Hill School in Maine to train as a hockey player in high school, but felt a divide between her academics and sports. Volpe said she felt the same emotions when she played at Bentley University and eventually gave up playing hockey collegiately once she transferred to Elon.
“It was hard for me to walk away from hockey,” Volpe said. “I obviously didn’t look at Elon for hockey. It was really devastating to make the decision between being happy academically or walking away from the sport that I had my entire identity around.”
Elon-native and HPU women’s coach Kimberly Starcher “coaches from the bench” as someone who has never played hockey before taking on the coaching position. Her husband — who coaches HPU’s men’s hockey team — and son have played the sport for over 20 years, which is how she learned the game.
“I’ll probably have one foot in the grave before I leave,” Starcher said. “The big thing that keeps me around is just watching how all the teams start to come together as a family. Watching everybody smile, be happy, supporting each other, I can’t leave this.”
Elon alumna Grace Moroney, Starcher and men’s coach Don Starcher sat down to start the women’s team in the 2021-22 season with a majority of Elon students on the roster, but officially recognized its first full season this year with 20 games scheduled. Now the team consists of five Elon players, with the rest from HPU. Per tradition, Kimberly chooses one Elon and one HPU captain to commemorate how the team came about.
“If I know more girls are coming to Elon, then let’s see what we can do to help them get to the team,” Kimberly said. “Unless I have a plane load of female hockey players get dropped off at Greensboro, we’re gonna have a merged team.”
Kimberly heard of Volpe by “word of mouth” as recruitment was underway for the 2023-24 season. She said she believes the HPU women’s team works so well because of the accessibility it provides for female players whose schools may not offer it.
After the HPU men’s hockey team leaves practice at 12:30 a.m., the women’s team practices until 2 a.m. to get rink time before the playoffs. According to Kimberly, there is not enough rink space at the school — nor other ice rinks nearby — that accommodate all the hockey teams in the Triad area. Volpe’s drive to include everyone in training and playing despite the team’s circumstances, and then winning the championships, was something Kimberly said helped lead the team to success.
“That’s what makes you an MVP, because you celebrated everybody’s actions,” Kimberly said. “She’s not a puck hog. She wants her teammates to score just as she wants to score. Every team needs that.”
The hardest part of the game doesn't come from the losses, Volpe said, but the mental blocks from bringing two schools into one team. Most of the time the once-per-week practices don’t have everyone in attendance, reminding her of the responsibilities all the players have as students on their respective campuses.
“Being an Elon girl as captain of the High Point team, sometimes I feel it’s hard to put my full heart into High Point,” Volpe said. “Even though we’re one team, being from different schools is such a part of our identity.”
Elon junior and HPU hockey player Caitlin Price said Volpe has raised the standard for demanding equal opportunities both on and off the ice for women’s sports as she observed the changes being made for both teams at HPU’s rink. In comparison, she said she believes that Elon fails to contribute to women’s sports, but is grateful that HPU is accommodating for female hockey players. However, Volpe said her dream would be to wear an Elon jersey and play against HPU.
“I would say High Point does the best job at making the women’s team feel adequate and leveled as the guys,” Volpe said. “In an ideal world, if I could do this experience again, I would love if Elon had a true women’s team and committed to as much as High Point does for their team. Because at the end of the day, I chose to enroll at Elon. The dream would be to wear Elon, not High Point.”
After graduating from Elon, Volpe said she hopes to pursue a career in environmental law and coaching hockey at the same time. Price said she feels the team will struggle to find the same leadership when Volpe hangs up jersey #6 at the end of this season.
“MJ being captain, she changed the whole team,” Price said. “She changed everything about it. She’s the only one who spoke out about a change between the boy’s team and our’s. Our team wouldn’t be doing as well or doing any of those things that we’re doing right now if it wasn’t for her.”