Lizzy Callahan is an extremely versatile athlete out on the ice. Not only does she wear the ‘C’ for her high school squad as a senior in 2025-26, she can also play at both forward and defense - depending on the needs of the Westonka girls hockey roster.

The Minnesota native had played forward her whole life up until one summer in middle school when a coach thought that she would do well trying things out on the blue line. Ever since then, she has bounced around from the front end to the back end and has shown a willingness to play whatever position her team needs her to be in. She has taken pride in her flexibility and says that her versatility has gone on to open doors for her in the world of hockey.

The now 17-year-old Callahan has grown up in the Twin Cities suburb of Eden Prairie and played her youth hockey through the Eagles association but she wound up competing for Westonka since she currently attends Southwest Christian High School in Chaska, which is a co-op girls high school hockey program with Mound Westonka. Callahan says that the varsity team is split fairly evenly between girls that attend the two schools but that they only practice in Mound, about 20 minutes away, because Southwest Christian doesn’t have its own rink.

Callahan wound up making the varsity roster for Westonka as just a freshman in high school back in 2022-23. The squad posted an 18-9 overall record, eventually falling to Orono in the section semifinals. As just a 14-year-old on varsity, the Eden Prairie native still put up 23 points through 27 games played that season, which was good for fifth-most in overall scoring on the entire team.

“It was definitely a change of pace but I thought that it was fun and the team that we had my freshman year was pretty great, with a few DI and DIII commits,” said Callahan about her first year up on varsity. “I got to play with Sydney Leonard [who is currently skating at the University of New Hampshire] and I was both defense and forward that year, but most of the year I was forward. I was playing with Sydney and another girl who was really good and that was just super fun for me.”

The Westonka team that season also included other future college hockey players in Gretta Pioske (Lindenwood / Wisconsin-Eau Claire), Camryn Hargreaves (Saint Benedict), Emily Wendorf (Saint Benedict), Greer Hardacre (Saint Benedict), and Tori Lacomy (ACHA at Iowa State) so there was plenty of talent that year out on the ice.

Thing were shaken up a bit within the White Hawks organization in the summer after Callahan’s freshman year though as the team brought on Larry Olimb to coach the girls high school team. Olimb had previously coached at Orono, the very team that ended their season in section playoffs and had gone on to be the runner-ups at the Class A state tournament in 2023, so that obviously added some fuel to the already existing Orono and Westonka girls hockey rivalry.

Despite the coaching staff looking a little different in her freshman and sophomore seasons, Callahan said that things didn’t change too drastically for the athletes on the team besides that there was a bit of a new drive from Olimb and his staff to get the White Hawks to the state tournament.

The Eden Prairie native and the Westonka team posted another solid overall record in 2023-24 by going 18-8-1, eventually losing to Orono in the section championship match. That season, 15-year-old Callahan was averaging over a point-per game by netting 11 goals and 18 assists through 27 contests, which turned out to be third in overall point scoring for the White Hawks. She actually played on defense for a majority of the year though.

The college recruitment process opened up shortly after the conclusion of Callahan’s sophomore season. In mid-June of that year, she was allowed to be a part of Division I recruiting conversations but she didn’t really feel like she was being contacted much until she eventually went out to Minnesota Duluth to attend their summer camp. The coaching staff at the event saw what she could do out on the ice and recruiting conversations took off from there.

“After going up and participating in the camp and just seeing how their coaching staff runs things and getting to meet some of their players, I just really liked how they ran their program,” Callahan said about her early feelings on the Bulldogs. “It seems very tight-knit among the players and the area [of Duluth] is really nice too.”

The Minnesota native was originally prepared to go wherever her path to college hockey would take her, even if that meant somewhere far away from home - such as out on the east coast, but in the end she knew that it would be nice to be close to home. It also just so happened that both of Callahan’s parents are UMD alums too, so being recruited by the Bulldogs program was special for the entire family. In fact, the 17-year-old’s father was actually a college football player at the university, so athletics seems to run in the family.

After some time passed and many recruiting conversations were had, Callahan eventually went out on an official visit to the school in the winter of her junior season. She would go on to make her verbal commitment to Minnesota Duluth on Dec. 4 of 2024.

“I am beyond excited and honored to announce my commitment to play Division I hockey and further my education at the University of Minnesota Duluth! I want to thank God, my coaches, family, teammates, and friends who have continually supported me along the way and have helped make this dream a reality. #GoBulldogs!! 🐶” Callahan posted to her social media pages.

She is already familiar with a few of her future Bulldogs teammates too, such as twin sisters Alaina Gnetz (Centennial/Spring Lake Park) and Brooke Gnetz (Woodbury) and Bemidji’s Bailey Rupp, who is a year younger. Otherwise, the rest of the incoming recruiting class for next fall at UMD seem to all be coming from internationally, with recruits from Canada (Quebec), Sweden and Finland at the moment.

During her junior season - the same year that she committed to UMD - Callahan registered a whopping 37 points through 27 games, which was good for second-most in overall points scored on the roster but she did have the most goals (23) out of anyone else. She said that having her college commitment all figured out made it a bit easier because she didn’t have to worry about going through recruitment and trying to get exposure during the season anymore and it let her just simply focus on her game without any distractions. She also went back to playing forward for a majority of that year, which may have accounted for the increase in her offensive production.

The White Hawks posted a similar 17-11 overall record in 2024-25 and again could not get past a tough Orono squad in section playoffs. This year though in 2026, the team is determined for a different outcome.

Now as a senior, Callahan is one of the captains of the team and is currently the leading scorer of the White Hawks with 43 points through 26 games. She owns both the most goals (21) and assists (22) on the entire roster. The 17-year-old has been rounding out her game as a leader both on and off the ice over past few years too, trying to go from a quieter, lead-by-example type of person to more of a vocal leader, in a positive way of course, and she credits Coach Claire Bjerke for helping her with that.

In early February of 2026, Westonka is sitting with a 15-8-3 overall record heading into the Section 5A semifinals - and who do you think it is that is up next on the game schedule? You guessed it - Orono. But this is a very different Spartans squad this year and Westonka has already played them once this season which resulted in a 3-3 tie. Breck might be the No. 1-seed in the section but nothing else matters right now except for the enormous Orono vs Westonka rivalry game in the semifinals. It’s going to be tough to get past the Spartans, who are the number two seed, but the White Hawks, the three seed, know that they can do it.

“We started off pretty strong this year, I think everyone would agree, but we know that as a team we’ve had some rough patches in the middle that could’ve gone better,” Callahan said about the season so far. “Some games that we lost could have been closer and could have been won but I think the mindset going into sections is that we’re going to do everything we can to outwork everyone else to try and get to state.”

Westonka won its section quarterfinal game against six seed Pine City Area by a score of 6-0 and are now ready for the big semifinal game on February 7th against Orono at 1:00 PM at Morrison Ice Arena. The winner of that game will play in the section final on Feb. 11th against likely the No. 1-seed, which is Breck, for a chance to play at the legendary Minnesota state hockey tournament.

“I think you can expect us to just be all in with our work ethic and with how we want to play the game and trying to make something happen for us,” the Eden Prairie native added. “We’re maybe not as deep as some teams compared to like a Breck maybe but we do have girls who are going to work hard and get shots on net.”

The White Hawks have been playing excellent hockey recently as the squad has outscored its opponents 24-0 over its past four games. No one knows yet what the future will bring for Callahan and the Westonka team but they are hoping for big things from their rivalry match this Saturday against Orono and hope to increase on their five game win streak.

Aside from that, Callahan is busy finishing up her senior year of high school at Southwest Christian. Once she gets out to college next fall at Minnesota Duluth she is considering majoring in something possibly related to the science, such as biology, since she does have an interest in working in the medical field in the future, but nothing is set in stone.

For any Bulldog fans who may be unfamiliar with her play style, Callahan says that she’s a versatile skater who tends to be more of a playmaker out on the ice. Her strengths lie in being able to see the ice and make plays to help generate offense. She’s an unselfish player who likes to create opportunities for the team as a a whole and she enjoys distributing the puck to others on her team.

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