Freshmen twins Jacquelin and Julieann White started the season off strong with a combined four goals in the first two games of the season.

From Royal Oak, Michigan, the girls grew up watching their older brother play hockey and started to gain interest in the sport.

“I would go to all of his practices and games,”Jacquelin White said. “I begged my dad to sign me up.”

After picking up on the girls’ interest, their father finally got them into hockey at age seven. They have fallen in love with the ice and have been playing ever since.

“[Hockey] is fun and exciting,” Julieann White said. “It always keeps you on your toes.”

Before becoming Lakers, both girls played on the HoneyBaked Hockey Club back in Michigan. There, they were given the chance to be noticed by recruiters and eventually get in contact with Diane Dillon, head coach of the Lakers women’s ice hockey team.

“We travel the country looking for players,” Dillon said. “Women’s hockey is really dominated by tournaments.”

According to Dillon, she and the rest of the recruitment team saw the twins playing a few years ago at various tournaments and started to identify them as players that they wanted for the future.

“We came to the campus and met the team and they were very welcoming,” Julieann White said. “I think that kind of sealed the deal.”

After both being recruited, they decided to stick together and join the Lakers, along with eight other new players for the 2016-2017 season.

“We never wanted to split up,”Jacquelin White said. “We’ve always wanted to play together and I couldn’t imagine playing against her on another team.”

“We’re fortunate enough for them to commit to us,” Dillon said. “With a new team, there’s a lot of learning curve and these guys have hit the ground running.”

The twins both believe that the levels of athleticism is very different between playing for HoneyBaked and the Lakers. The practices are longer and the workouts have an increased intensity, but it all is seemingly worth it when they hit the ice on gameday.

“I was a little nervous at first but I transitioned well,” Jacquelin White said. “The team really helped and having them made the transition easier.”

On the ice, the twins both show an incredible amount of talent when it comes to speed and communication.

“We motivate each other and compete with each other on the ice,” Julieann White said.

The girls both show an interest in each others’ improvement when it comes to on-ice practices and games as well.

“We’re definitely competitive when we play against each other,” Jacquelin White said. “It keeps things interesting on the ice.”

Other than each other, the girls both agree that their biggest supporter is their father.

“He’s always been there for every practice, game and tournament,” Jacquelin White said.

“He’s always been there supporting us through hockey, school, and family,” Julieann White said. “He has always motivated us to do what we wanted and he has just always been my biggest influence.”

Both girls admitted that almost everything they do in hockey is relatively the same, except for when it comes to warmups and game preparation.

Jacquelin usually keeps to herself before a game. She likes to mentally prepare through music and tries to relax as much as possible before she hits the ice.

“I try to focus on the game rather than talking in the locker room,” Jacquelin White said.

Julieann, on the other hand, does not like to mentally prepare until warm ups in fear of psyching herself out before a game.

“I physically and mentally can’t prepare before warmups,” Julieann White said. “I don’t want to get too nervous and start to overthink things.”

Both girls have shown an incredible amount of talent on the ice for it being so early in the season. They both attribute their success to their communication skills with their teammates.

Jacquelin has even earned the ECAC West Rookie of the week honors for her noteworthy start to the season.

“There’s so much adrenaline and so many turning points throughout the game,” Jacquelin White said. “You never know what’s going to happen on the ice.”

According to Jacquelin and Julieann, they are going to continue to encourage each other to play strong to kick off their careers with the Lakers this season.