Jinelle Lynn Zaugg (born March 27, 1986) was a member of the 2009–10 United States national women's ice hockey team and won a silver medal at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Zaugg also played hockey for the Wisconsin Badgers and won the NCAA title in 2006. In addition, she helped the Minnesota Whitecaps to the Western Women's Hockey League championship in 2008–09.
In high school, Zaugg played for the Northland Pines High School varsity boys' hockey team. She was on the team that won back-to-back Lumberjack Conference championships as a junior and senior, mostly as a 3rd or 4th liner.
Wisconsin Badgers
Over her four-year career at Wisconsin, Zaugg won two national championships, and scored 133 career points. In addition, she was named to the 2007 Frozen Four All-Tournament Team, and was honored as team captain in 2008. In her first year at Wisconsin, Zaugg managed to score 12 goals on 15 percent shooting. With 24 goals in 2005, she established herself as a major threat on a championship-bound Badgers team. In her junior year, she put together a 29-goal season — 20 of which came in conference play. She nearly doubled her conference scoring output from a year before (12 goals). Eight of Zaugg's team-leading 29 goals were game-winners, earning her reputation as a clutch player. When Wisconsin won its second national championship in 2006, Zaugg notched two of the three goals in the game and garnered All-Tournament honors.
USA Hockey
Zaugg was a member of the silver medal winning U.S. Women's National Team for the 2007 International Ice Hockey Federation World Women's Championship. She was a two-time member of the U.S. Women's Select Team for the Four Nations Cup (she competed in 2006 and in 2007). During that time, she was also a member of the U.S. Women's Under-22 Select Team. In 2006, 2007 and 2009, she was a USA Hockey Women's National Festival participant (2006–07, 2009). On March 25, 2011, she officially announced her retirement from the U.S. Women’s National Program.
2010 Olympic team
Six of her teammates on the US team are players she played with at Wisconsin. The teammates include Hilary Knight, Meghan Duggan, Jessie Vetter, Erika Lawler, Molly Engstrom, and Kerry Weiland.
January 5: In an exhibition game against the Wisconsin women's hockey team, Zaugg netted a goal and had an assist as Team USA won by a score of 9–0.
Personal
Prior to the Vancouver Winter Games, she married former MSOE Hockey Player, Michael Siergiej.
On September 22, 2010, Zaugg and Jessie Vetter threw out the ceremonial first pitch at Miller Park before the Milwaukee Brewers/Cincinnati Reds game. For the 2010–11 season, Zaugg became the head coach of the girls hockey team at Arrowhead High School in Milwaukee.
For the 2010–11 season, she served as head coach for an U-14 girls hockey team called the Wild Cats, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
She has served as an assistant coach for the women's hockey team at St Cloud State University since the 2014–15 season.
Jinelle Siergiej Award
The Jinelle Siergiej Award was introduced in 2011. The criteria for the award is the "Overall Offensive Player of the Year". The award by Wisconsin Prep Hockey (www.wisconsinprephockey.net) is presented to a female ice hockey player from Wisconsin prep school and coaches are asked to nominate a player from their respective team. A list of winners includes:
Awards and honors
Wisconsin Badgers career leader in goals (89), power-play goals (29), game-winning goals (22) and games played (160).
