Liberty University’s ACHA Division I men’s hockey player Luke Hannon will represent Team USA in the Winter World University Games, Feb. 4-14, 2015, in Granada, Spain.
Hannon, a 23-year-old freshman forward from Buffalo, N.Y. who is the current ACHA DI scoring leader with 28 goals and 28 assists (56 points), was the first Flames player selected to participate in the eight years USA Hockey has entered a team.
The 27th annual event is similar to the Winter Olympics, but is open only to non-scholarship collegiate athletes, with approximately 3,000 participants and 800,000 spectators expected to compete in and watch sports ranging from skiing, snowboarding, and figure skating to biathlon and curling.
Team USA’s 22-man hockey squad includes six players from defending ACHA DI national champion Arizona State University and three each from Ohio and Oklahoma. It will be coached by former Penn State University Head Coach Scott Balboni, who guided Team USA to a best-ever fourth-place finish at last year’s Winter Games in Italy. Balboni will be assisted by former Adrian College Head Coach Dan Phelps and current Ohio Head Coach Sean Hogan.
Team USA will play a couple exhibition games against professional teams from Spain before facing Japan in its opener on Feb. 5 and Kazakhstan in the final round of preliminary play on Feb. 7. It will compete in a qualifier on Feb. 10 with a chance to advance to the Feb. 11 quarterfinal, the Feb. 13 semifinal, and the Feb. 14 bronze or gold medal game.