The coaching staff, led by head coach Colin Muller, has nominated a mix of young and experienced players for the World Championship, which will take place from April 3 to 14, 2024 in Utica (New York, USA). Of the 25 players called up, ten have already played more than 80 international matches. The list is headed by EVZ forward Lara Stalder (179 games), followed by Alina Müller (146), who is under contract with Boston in the newly launched Professional Women’s Hockey League in the USA. «Although all the players have already gained experience on the domestic stage, we are traveling to the USA with a very young team with an average age of around 22. With Alena Lynn Rossel, Leoni Balzer, Naemi Herzig and Ivana Wey, we have also nominated four players who already took part in the U18 World Championship in January,» says Head Coach Muller.
Together with the USA, Canada, the Czech Republic and Finland, the Swiss have been assigned to Group A, which contains the top five teams from last year’s World Championships. Group B features Sweden, Japan and Germany, the nations that finished sixth to eighth at the 2023 World Championships, as well as China and Denmark, two teams that were promoted from Division IA. All the nations in Group A and the top three teams in Group B will advance to the knockout phase, while the bottom two teams in Group B will be relegated. In the knockout phase, re-seeding takes place after the quarter-finals.
Switzerland will travel to the USA on March 26, 2024, where they will undergo intensive preparations at a week-long training camp and fine-tune the final details to ensure they are optimally prepared for the World Cup campaign. Two test matches against Sweden (March 30, 2024) and Germany (April 1, 2024) are also planned for this week. Head coach Muller had the following to say about the objectives: «We’re extremely excited about the World Cup and are doing everything we can against strong rivals to play for another medal.»
