Duggan Wins Kazmaier Award, Third NCAA Title

It’s been quite a weekend for of Danvers. The 5-foot-9, 23-year-old Olympian, senior captain and forward for the University of Wisconsin Badgers was in Erie, Pa. for the NCAA Frozen Four tournament and walked away with a handful of awards.

Duggan was named the winner of the 14th annual Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award on March 19, according to an official announcement from the UW Athletics Department. The award is given each year to the top player in NCAA Division I Women’s College Hockey. The following day, Duggan who leads the NCAA in points, capped off her extraordinary weekend by becoming the third Badger to win the Kazmaier Award to also bring home an NCAA title, with a 4-1 win over Boston University.

As if winning the Kazmaier Award and a NCAA title weren’t enough, Duggan also was named co-MVP, sharing the title for the first time in the history of the Frozen Four with teammate Hillary Knight, a junior center/left wing. Duggan and Knight also were named along with three other Badgers’ teammates — junior left wing Brooke Ammerman, sophomore defenseman Alev Kelter and goaltender Alex Rigsby — to the all-tournament team.

Duggan took a silver medal in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Quebec, skating with the U.S. Women’s Hockey Team.

In a video recording from the award ceremony, which is now on You Tube and the official University of Wisconsin Athletics Web site, Duggan can be seen receiving the Kazmaier award with her parents Bob and Mary, sister Katelyn and brother Bryan in attendance.

Upon hearing her name, a visibly emotional Duggan is seen embracing both her parents amongst the rousing cheers and whistles of the crowd, before making her way to the podium to deliver a thoughtful acceptance speech.

Duggan offers a sincere thank you to the Kazmaier and Sandt families for their continual support of women’s hockey, in her remarks, along with the USA Hockey Foundation for putting on the event and her coaches at the University of Wisconsin for “taking a chance on her.”

Duggan thanked her team, calling them “an incredible group of girls,” and crediting each and every one for their contribution to the team’s, and her individual, successes.

Finally, Duggan thanked her family, her “backbone through everything.”

“The support and the love I’ve felt from you guys through everything I’ve been through has put me in the position to be up here today, and I can’t thank you guys enough for everything you’ve done for me and all the sacrifices that we’ve all had to make. So I appreciate your love and your support, and I couldn’t have done it without you. Thank you very much,” Duggan said.