“[It was a] leap of faith,” Corriero adds.

As was their eventual college decision. The two consulted with one another, and while Banfield intended on coming to Harvard, Corriero considered other schools.

“We both got in here and decided it’d be great to go to school together since we know each other, we’ve played together for so long,” Banfield says. “We both just absolutely loved the team here. That was the biggest selling factor—everyone on the team that we had met were so great.”

“There was just something about the players and the school and everything here that just kind of fit,” Corriero says.

Much has changed since their decision, and their progression is evident on the ice.

“I think the biggest difference is when Ashley was younger, she was an active skater, where it wasn’t just about her moving her legs but about her moving every one of her body parts in order to move from point A to point B,” Corriero jokes, “kind of rowing a boat.”

Corriero notes that Ashley’s biggest contribution has been filling the very big skates left by Angela Ruggiero ‘02-’04, both on the ice as a defenseman and off the ice as a leader.

“Ashley’s definitely the smartest defensemen I’ve ever played with. It’s been evident since we were in high school and before,” Corriero says, “but it’s come to be shown more and more in her college career as well. She’s the kind of speaks-least, says-most type of leader. But when she does talk everybody listens because when she goes out on the ice she actualizes what she says and leads by example.”

Just as Banfield has stepped up in ways most did not expect before this season, so too has Corriero had an unpredictable senior year.

“She just really stepped it up, not just breaking the [goals-scored in a season] record. That’s great and all, but defensively she’s become a much stronger player,” Banfield says. “We used to joke that she never went into the defensive zone, and now she’s on the penalty kill doing a tremendous job on the 5-on-3s we’ve had. Her game has gotten tremendously better while she hasn’t lost any of her offensive punch she’s always had.”

Both Corriero and Banfield attribute this increase in production to Corriero’s training and conditioning in the off-season.

“I remember coming in freshmen year and going, ‘whoa, you got a lot bigger.’ She did a lot of lifting over the summer and got really strong,” Banfield says. “She’s gotten a lot faster. Try to knock her off the puck—you can’t.”

While Corriero credits much of her strength to kickboxing and spinning classes, she realizes it didn’t hurt to have Ruggiero as her lifting partner for two years.

“She’d be like, ‘Go on! Smack on another 45,’ and I’d be trying to impress the big Olympian going ‘Yeah! Woo! I’m hardcore,’” Corriero says. “And like I can’t fit into any of my jeans anymore, I’m like dammit!’”

Still, both have found a good fit at Harvard, particularly this season, when as seniors each has posted career numbers—Corriero rivals the nation’s scoring leaders, ranking first in goals (58) and seconds in points per game (2.59), while Banfield ranks second nationally among defensemen for points per game (1.21).