One month after senior goaltender Emma Soderberg announced she would return to the University of Minnesota Duluth women's hockey team for a fifth season, seven current Bulldog seniors have committed to join her.

Taylor Anderson, Ashton Bell, Maggie Flaherty, Kylie Hanley, Gabbie Hughes, Anneke Linser, Naomi Rogge have each accepted the additional season of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-10 pandemic, and will return to UMD for a final season in Duluth.

The seven returning seniors each played vital roles in securing back-to-back NCAA Frozen Four appearances for the Bulldogs, the program's first back-to-back appearances in over a decade.  As a class, they are now an impressive 4-2 in the NCAA Tournament,  and 3-0 in NCAA Regional Finals and NCAA Quarterfinal games. In four seasons, they have helped UMD to a 72-47-11 overall record and a final national ranking of second in 2021-22 and third in 2020-21. Including Soderberg, they also boast two returning 2022 Winter Olympians, including an Olympic gold medalist in Bell.

Anderson rounded out her senior campaign with a goal and assist in the 2022 NCAA Frozen Four, including the game-tying goal in the national semifinal game.  The Eagan, Minn. native has now logged a goal in each of UMD's back-to-back NCAA Frozen Fours in 2021 and 2022, and is the only Bulldog to have achieved it.  The winger skated in 38 of UMD 40 games, tallying a career-best seven goals paired with eight goals for 15 points, and current has 37 career points on 15 goals and 17 assists through 124 games. Named a 2021-22 WCHA Scholar Athlete for the third time in her career, Anderson was also named a 2021-22 WCHA All-Academic Team member for a third-straight season.

Bell centralized with the Canadian Olympic Team for the season and helped Canada to the 2022 Olympic Gold Medal in her first Olympics with Canada, posting one goal and four assists from the blueline.  The product of Deloraine, Manitoba became the seventh UMD player to win an Olympic Gold medal, and became the second current UMD player in as many Olympic games to strike gold with college eligibility remaining. As a senior, Bell turned in arguably one of the most impressive season by a blueliner in program history, en route to literally leading the Bulldogs back into their first NCAA Frozen Four in over a decade by scoring 6:39 into overtime of UMD's NCAA Quarterfinal game against Colgate in Erie, Penn. Bell was named a 2020-21 CCM/AHCA Second Team All-American, as well as a USCHO First Team All-American, and was also selected to the 2021 NCAA Frozen Four All-Tournament Team. After finishing the season the seventh-highest scoring defenseman in the nation and second highest in the WCHA with 14 points on four goals and 10 assists, Bell was named the WCHA's Defenseman of the Year, as well as an All-WCHA First Team selection and earned both a thrird WCHA Scholar Athlete nod, as well as to a third-straight WCHA All-Academic Team.

Flaherty was in the middle of a successful senior season before suffering a season-ending injury in game 25, and was forced to miss the remaining 15 UMD games, including the Bulldogs second-consecutive trip to the NCAA Frozen Four.  A native of Lakeville, Minn., Flaherty had scored two goals and added five assists for seven points prior to injury. Flaherty's most notable goal of the season was an incredible extended goal line overtime game-winning goal against Minnesota at AMSOIL Arena on Oct. 8. The blueline was selected the WCHA's Defenseman of the Week on Oct. 12, 2021 and was also named to the 2021-22 WCHA All-Academic Team, and will enter the 2022-23 season with the 10th most assists by a defenseman in program history with 44.

A 2021-22 team captain, Hanley skated in all 40 Bulldog games her senior season, moving to defense in November to help UMD play in back-to-back NCAA Frozen Fours and a title game appearance. The product of Minnetonka, Minn. posted 10 points on six goals and four assists -- the eighth most goals on the team, had a plus/minus rating of +14, and averaged 1.68 shots per game, all the while making the second blocks on the team with 41.  Hanley was also named a WCHA Scholar Athlete for a third consecutive time, as well as a 2021-22 WCHA All-Academic Team selection.

Hughes is coming off the best offensive season of her four-year college career.  The Lino Lakes, Minn. native became one of just three players in NCAA Division I women's hockey history to be named both a Patty Kazmaier Top-3 Finalist and a Hockey Humanitarian Finalist. Hughes was named a 2021-22 CCM/AHCA First Team All-American, as well as an All-WCHA First Team selection ranking eighth in the nation in points per game overall (1.48 ppg average), and second in game-winning goals in the NCAA with seven. Compiled a career-best 59 points on 22 goals and 37 assists, and led the NCAA in points per game for more than half of the season, while posting 18 multiple point games in the season. Hughes will return in 2022-23 with 168 career points -- already the eighth most in program history, and currently ranks eighth with 97 career assists, and tenth with 71 goals.

Linser, a three-time WCHA Scholar Athlete Award selection, as well as a three-time All-WCHA All-Academic Team member, will bring 64 career points on 25 goals and 39 asssits with her in 2022-32.  A native of Lino Lakes, Minn., Linser owns the third most game-winning tallies with six after recording six goals and 11 assists for 17 points her senior season. Over her four-year career, Linser has kept a +26 plus/minus rating over 126 games.

Rogge will return for her fifth season just seven points shy of the UMD 100 career point mark.  The Eden Prairie, Minn. product was UMD's fourth-leading scorer in 2021-22, recording 20 goals and 15 assists in a career-best season.  Rogge cemented herself into NCAA Frozen Four history when the center scored the game-winning goal against Northeastern University in double overtime in the 2022 NCAA Frozen Four semifinal game that sent the Bulldogs soaring into the title game, her fifth game-winning goal of the season. One of two players to notch a hat trick this past season, Rogge was named to the 2022 NCAA Frozen Four All-Tournament Team, and was also selected to the All-WCHA All-Academic Team.

The five forwards and two defensemen will join goaltender Sodberg, who after making her first-ever appearance in the Winter Olympics with the Swedish Olympic Team, has already announced she would return to the Bulldogs for the 2022-23 season.  Soderberg, who was named the Hockey Commissioners Association's National Goaltender of the Month for March, posted a NCAA Tournament record 146 saves over four games and 277:38 of action to help backstop the Bulldogs into their first NCAA Championship game in 12 seasons.  The Jarved, Sweden native went 3-1, including one shutout in the NCAA postseason, and had a 1.08 goals against average, in addition to a .957 saves percentage. For her NCAA Frozen Four heroics, which included a career-high 46 saves in double-overtime in the semifinal win, Soderberg was named to the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team.  Soderberg finished the season -- which was interrupted by a brilliant Olympic debut in net for Sweden in mid-January -- with five shutouts and a 17-8-0 overall record to go with a .925 saves percentage.