THE RINK LIVE— As a college student in a foreign country and a goalie on an NCAA Division I women’s hockey team, Janine Alder needs to process things quickly in her mind. A native of Switzerland, she has to translate lessons given to her in English and, on the ice, she needs to react quickly to stop as many pucks as she can.
Alder, who speaks five languages, has clearly been successful translating her first three school years at St. Cloud State, being named a WCHA Scholar-Athlete each of the last two seasons as a mass communications major. To earn scholar-athlete status, students must have at least one year prior at their respective institution and have a grade-point average of at least 3.50 on a 4.0 scale for the previous two semesters (or three quarters), or may qualify if their overall GPA is at least 3.50 for all terms at the institution.
She has also been a member of the last two Swiss Olympic women’s hockey teams and her career save percentage (.930) and career goals-against average (2.55) are both tops in St. Cloud State’s history going into this season.
All of that came to an abrupt stop on April 7 when Alder suffered an epileptic seizure after playing a game for Switzerland in the IIHF Women’s World Championships in Espoo, Finland.
