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She was the “Queen of the Ice” and helped popularize women’s hockey a century ago, when many men’s leagues were folding as players signed up for a larger battle overseas.

Eva Ault was one of the first players with the Ottawa Alerts, a team formed in 1915 from the best “hockeyists,” as one account of the day referred to them, at Ottawa Ladies’ College and the Young Women’s Christian Association.

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Playing out of Dey’s Arena and wearing striking yellow-and-black uniforms, the Alerts were not part of any league, but played exhibition matches in a circuit that included Montreal, Renfrew and Pittsburgh. In 1916, they famously defeated the Pittsburgh Ladies Club three times in a single day, and followed that feat with a victory the next day against Toronto.

That year, the Alerts also faced the Cornwall Victorias, led by Albertine “Miracle Maid” Lapensée, for the ladies’ hockey championship of Canada, a three-game series held in, of all places, Cleveland, Ohio. The Cleveland Plain Dealer promised a “spirited duel,” although the Alerts ultimately lost all three matches. They did, however, capture the Canadian title in the 1922-23 season.