Lenka Slezak Serdar (born 21 July 1997) is a Czech-American

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

player and member of the Czech national team. She was signed with the Connecticut Whale of the now defunct

Premier Hockey Federation The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was a women's professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from March 2015 until June 2023. The league was established in 2015 as the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), com ...

(PHF) for the 2022–23 season. Serdar represented the Czech Republic at the

2021 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2021 IIHF Women's World Championship was an international ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), which was contested in Calgary, Alberta, from 20 to 31 August 2021, at WinSport Arena. It was ori ...

and in the women's ice hockey tournament at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

Playing career

Serdar grew up playing ice hockey in and around her home town of

Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by ...

in the

Greater Boston Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England, and its surrounding areas, home to 4,941,632. The most s ...

area. During the 2013–14 season, she began playing in the

Junior Women's Hockey League The Junior Women's Hockey League is an ice hockey league established in 2007 by Bill Driscoll and Kush Sidhu, coaches of North American Hockey Academy and the Washington Pride, respectively, in order to provide opportunities for young females to d ...

(JWHL) with the North American Hockey Academy (NAHA)

major junior Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National List of members of the International Ice Hockey Federation, Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's nationa ...

team, called NAHA White, based in

Wellesley, Massachusetts Wellesley () is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Wellesley is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The population was 29,550 at the time of the 2020 census. Wellesley College, Babson College, and a campus of M ...

. In her

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

year of

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

, she relocated to the North American Hockey Academy academic campus in

Stowe, Vermont Stowe is a town in Lamoille County, Vermont, United States. The population was 5,223 at the 2020 census. The town lies on Vermont Routes 108 and 100. It is nicknamed "The Ski Capital of the East" and is home to Stowe Mountain Resort, a ski fa ...

and served as alternate captain to NAHA White. She led the team in scoring during the 2014–15 season, with 11 goals and 27

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

in 28 games, and was selected to participate in the JWHL All Star game.

NCAA

Her

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the go ...

career was played with the

Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey The Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey program represents Cornell University and participates in Division I collegiate hockey in the ECAC Hockey conference. They play at the Lynah Rink in Ithaca, New York. The Ivy League announced in July 2 ...

program in the

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

and

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

conferences of the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

. As a

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience, a rookie is typically considered needing more tra ...

in the 2015–16 season, Serdar notched 1 goal and 7 points in 31 games, ranking fourth of all Big Red

freshman A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

in points. The following season, 2016–17, she earned a reputation as a reliable

two-way forward In ice hockey, a two-way forward is a forward who handles the defensive aspects of the game as well as the offensive aspects. Typically, a player's frame is not an issue in whether he can be a two-way forward. Perseverance is key to being a two-w ...

, ranking eighth on the team for points, with 13 (3+10), second of all team forwards for blocked shots, with 33, and accumulating the second-highest face-off win percentage, at .535. She earned praise from Cornell head coach

Doug Derraugh Doug Derraugh (born September 28, 1968) is the head coach of the women's ice hockey team at Cornell University where he has a record of 325-180-49 through the 2022-23 season after 19 seasons as coach. He is the most successful coach in the histo ...

for her versatility, focus, and skill set. Continuing to develop her offensive game, she recorded 5 goals and 18 points in 33 games in her junior season, 2017–18, and was a 2018 All-Ivy Honorable Mention. Her senior campaign, 2018–19, was her most offensively successful and saw her rank third on the team for goals, with 12, and fifth on the team for points, with 25 in 36 games. During her time at Cornell, Serdar played alongside many future stars of international and professional women’s ice hockey, including Jaime Bourbonnais, Amy Curlew, Sarah Knee, Taylor Woods, and Micah Zandee-Hart.

Europe

To continue playing ice hockey after college, Serdar relocated to Europe in 2019. She signed with

ECDC Memmingen The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is an agency of the European Union (EU) whose mission is to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases. It covers a wide spectrum of activities, such as: surveillance, e ...

of the

German Women's Ice Hockey Bundesliga The German Women's Ice Hockey League () or DFEL, also known as the German Women's Ice Hockey Bundesliga (), is the top-tier women's ice hockey league in Germany. An amateur league, it was founded in 1988 by the German Ice Hockey Federation (DEB, ...

(DFEL) for the 2019–20 season and led the team in scoring with 26 goals and 49 points in 21 regular season games. In the 2019–20 regular season of the EWHL Supercup, she led all ECDC Memmingen players with six goals and 10 points in 8 games; however, the team withdrew from the Final 4 Tournament and did not contend for the Supercup, being replaced by the fifth-ranked EHV Sabres. Serdar signed with

HC Příbram HC, hc or H/C may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Medicine * Health Canada * Hemicrania continua * Hyperelastosis cutis or hereditary equine regional dermal asthenia Chemistry * Hemocyanin, a metalloprotein abbreviated Hc * ...

of the Czech Women’s Hockey Extraliga for the 2020–21 season. The season was significantly delayed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

; ultimately, HC Příbram could play only four regular season games. Serdar was explosive in the limited season, leading the league in goals (9), assists (9), and points (18). When the Extraliga playoffs were cancelled, she sought other opportunities to play and opted to sign with

TPS Naiset Turun Palloseura Naiset (), abbreviated TPS Naiset, are an ice hockey team in the Finnish Auroraliiga. They play in Turku, Southwest Finland at the Kupittaan jäähalli and . The team has played in the Auroraliiga, the Finnish Champion, Finnish ...

of the Finnish

Naisten Liiga The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten L ...

through the end of the 2020–21 season and

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. Despite playing in five regular season games, she ranked 20th in the league for scoring, notching three goals and 6 points. In the playoff quarterfinals, sixth-seed TPS faced third-seed

HIFK Naiset IFK Helsinki Naiset (), abbreviated HIFK Naiset and also known as Stadin Gimmat (, a nickname for Helsinki), is an ice hockey team in the Finnish Auroraliiga. They play in the Pirkkola district of Helsinki at the (). The team is the represen ...

in a best-of-three series. TPS tallied only two goals in the series, and Serdar played a part in both, assisting on captain Elina Heikkinen’s goal and potting an empty net goal of her own in the second game. Ahead of the 2021–22 season, Serdar signed a two-season contract with

Linköping HC Linköping Hockey Club, often known by its Acronym, initials LHC, or Colloquialism, colloquially among its fans as Cluben, is a Swedish professional ice hockey club from Linköping, founded in 1976. The home arena of the team is Saab Arena (for ...

of the

Swedish Women's Hockey League The Swedish Women's Hockey League (), abbreviated SDHL, is the elite league for women's ice hockey in Sweden. It was established in 2007 as the by the Swedish Ice Hockey Association and was renamed prior to the 2016–17 season. The league has ...

(SDHL). In a press release announcing the signing, she noted that she was motivated to play in Sweden because she "heard that the SDHL is the best league in Europe… It’s an Olympic year, so it’s an important year and an important season. So I wan’t to play the best hockey possible."

International play

As a junior player, Serdar was invited to and attended several under-18 development camps hosted by

USA Hockey USA Hockey is a national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United S ...

. She first played with the Czech national team after moving to Germany in 2019, appearing in international friendlies during the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons. Her major tournament debut was the 2021 IIHF Women's World Championship, and she has stated her desire to qualify for and play in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

with the Czech national team.

Personal life

Serdar is a

dual citizen Multiple citizenship (or multiple nationality) is a person's legal status in which a person is at the same time recognized by more than one sovereign state, country under its nationality law, nationality and citizenship law as a national or cit ...

of the Czech Republic and the United States. Both her mother, Alena Slezak and her father, Luka Serdar, were born in the Czech Republic (then part of

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

). Though she was raised in the United States, she has described her upbringing as very Czech, “All four f mygrandparents were Czech. Even in America, we followed Czech customs, ate Czech food, and spoke Czech.” She has two older siblings, Luka and Petra. She attended Lexington High School during her first three years of

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

, where she was a three-year

honor roll An honors student or honor student is a student recognized for achieving high grades or high marks in their coursework at school. United States In the United States, honors students may refer to: # Students recognized for their academic achievem ...

member and a ten-time letter winner across three sports, ice hockey,

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

, and

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

Career statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Sources: Elite Prospects, JWHL, USCHO

International

Source: IIHF

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Serdar, Lenka 1997 births Living people American people of Czech descent American women's ice hockey forwards Connecticut Whale (PHF) players Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey players Czech women's ice hockey forwards Ice hockey players at the 2022 Winter Olympics Ice hockey players from Massachusetts Linköping HC (women) players Olympic ice hockey players for the Czech Republic Sportspeople from Lexington, Massachusetts TPS Naiset players European Women's Hockey League players American expatriate ice hockey players in Finland American expatriate ice hockey players in Germany American expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden Czech expatriate ice hockey players in Finland Czech expatriate ice hockey players in Germany Czech expatriate ice hockey players in Sweden 21st-century American sportswomen