Campbell River’s Olivia Knowles has been named to the National Under-18 Women’s Hockey team and will join the squad in a three-game series against the U.S. in Lake Placid, N.Y., Aug. 19-23.
A right-handed shooting blueliner, Knowles, 16, emerged from the recent U-18 team selection camp in Calgary, which wrapped up Sunday. She was one of 23 players selected to represent the under-18 team, and another 22 players were named to the national development team.
Both teams will compete in the series in Lake Placid, where they will be evaluated for potential invitations to the Canada National Women’s Team fall festival Sept. 13-20 in Calgary.
“We are coming off a strong, 10-day camp where we had the opportunity to evaluate these players on and off the ice,” said Melody Davidson, Hockey Canada’s general manager of national women’s team programs. “As our programs continue to grow, our selection decisions are made more difficult. These series in Lake Placid will be another step for these players to demonstrate they belong with our teams this season.”
Knowles, who played in the Campbell River Tyees hockey program, now competes for the Okanagan Hockey Academy in Penticton. Earlier this year, she was selected to play for Team BC in the Female U-18 division of the Canada Winter Games.
In four intrasquad games between three teams of prospective national team invitees, Knowles registered three assists, tying for fourth in scoring in the round-robin series. The series in Lake Placid will be live-streamed on the game summary page at www.hockeycanada.ca. The under-18 team will open its series against the U.S. tomorrow at 3 p.m. PDT.