Chatham University welcomed a new addition to the women’s ice hockey team at the beginning of the spring 2025 term, all the way from Lithuania: second-year student Klara Miuller.
Earlier in March, Miuller captained her home country of Lithuania in the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Division IIIA tournament to a gold medal, making history as the first gold medalist to play for Chatham’s women’s hockey. Not only did Miuller lead her team with six goals and six assists, but she scored the winning goal against Thailand in overtime to secure Lithuania’s first ever gold medal and a promotion to Division IIB.
“Even though Miuller has made a major impact on women’s hockey at Chatham and the international level, she has been both humble and resilient throughout the entire process,” Chatham women’s hockey head coach Michael O’Grady said. “She’s got a level of maturity to herself in the way that she acts and handles herself. She’s still goofy with her teammates and has been an amazing person in the locker room.”
Miuller was named the top forward in the tournament and has been a pillar of Lithuania women’s hockey on the international stage since the team’s formation in 2020. She is her country’s all-time leader in points, goals, assists and games played.
Even though competing as the captain of her team at the national level can come with pressure, Miuller has learned how to handle it through her experiences at Chatham.
“I didn’t feel much pressure being a captain [in the IIHF tournament], but once I started playing here, at Chatham, I saw that there’s more to it than just a letter on a jersey,” said Miuller ‘27. “I think Chatham helped me a lot to develop the part of leading a team.”
Miuller decided to join Chatham after meeting Abbigail Cunkelman ‘26 at a hockey camp in Sweden over the summer of 2024. Cunkelman recounts her experience meeting Miuller over the summer.
“I just wouldn’t shut up about how I wanted to be back at Chatham and how much I missed my friends. It just somehow caught her eye that I just wouldn’t stop talking about [Chatham], and she wanted to come see,” Cunkelman ‘27 said.
Even though Miuller joined the team in January due to the length of the Visa process, she still made an impact, scoring two goals with one assist throughout the 12 games she played this season.
“It’s out of the ordinary for women’s hockey to have someone come in during the second semester, but it was awesome. She brought a whole new aspect to our on-ice dynamic,” said team captain Samantha Barrett ‘25.
O’Grady shares how impactful Miuller’s arrival has been to the Chatham hockey program.
“She is not the first player in our program to medal internationally, but the first player for our program to ever win a gold [medal] in an international competition, and that’s a pretty cool statistic,” Chatham women’s hockey head coach Mike O’Grady said. “She’s a competitor and competes and pushes everyone around her to be better but she’s also a great human and that’s what made this transition, coming in mid-year, go really well.”
