At 19, Murphy is the second-youngest player expected to make the Olympic roster, just six months older than defenseman Caroline Harvey. In order to chase after her dream, Murphy, who would be a sophomore for the Gophers this season, is taking a redshirt season to dedicate this year to hockey instead of schoolwork.
While the Olympic roster hasn’t been formally announced, it was recently trimmed to 23 players, the number of players that will compete in Beijing during the Games Feb. 4-20. Currently, Murphy and her teammates are competing in the My Why Tour, a series of games against Canada, which will bring them to St. Paul to compete at the Xcel Energy Center on Monday night.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now than doing this with my teammates,” she said. “It’s been a heck of a ride so far.”
Still, shifting focus full-time to hockey and not having to balance school has been “really weird” for Murphy, who is still living on campus with Gophers teammates Maggie Nicholson and Josey Dunne.
“I’ve kind of adjusted to it now, but like the first month, I always thought I had to wake up and go to class,” she said.
Instead, she wakes up every day and reports to the Super Rink in Blaine, where…
