June 3, 2022 Salt Lake City, Utah
University of Utah Women’s Division 1 Hockey has received a commitment from Forward Gabriella Borbolla for the upcoming 2022-23 season. Gabriella began skating about the time she started walking. Her mom was a competitive figure skater, so she began skating lessons at the 3 years old. Playing hockey didn’t come for another 10 years; her younger brother was playing hockey and inspired her to try it. She played as a forward in boys travel for several years. It was there, where she fell in love with the aggressiveness, physicality, and competitiveness of hockey. When Borbolla was fifteen, she started playing Girls AAA Hockey. This gave her the opportunity to travel outside of Michigan and play hockey all over the country. After high school, Borbolla started her undergraduate degree in Kinesiology at Michigan State University. She decided to pause her hockey career to focus on her education. After, not playing hockey for 2 years, she felt something was missing and she wanted to return to the sport. She tried out for the Michigan State University D2 Women’s Ice Hockey team her junior year of college and was offered a position on defense. Her senior year of college, she was appointed Assistant Captain, where she continued to encourage and support the team through a pandemic. “I fell in love with hockey all over again my last two years at MSU. Now, I am very fortunate and so excited to be fully involved in my academics and athletics as a Ute,” says Borbolla.“Gabby is going to make a major impact on our lineup. She’s strong and has a great shot, but what makes her unique is that she has ACHA experience. She’ll bring great hockey wisdom and leadership to our game,” Women’s Division 1 Head Coach Braeden Yeo said.
Borbolla plans to earn her master’s degree in Occupational Therapy at the U.
Utah Hockey would like to welcome Gabriella and wish her the absolute best in the upcoming season!