ORONO – University of Maine sophomore left winger Meagan Aarts knows she won’t be receiving any Christmas presents or cards from opposing coaches or players.

In the highly competitive but relatively polite world of women’s hockey, where there is no body checking, Aarts is like a time traveler who landed in the wrong era.

She talks trash and admits she wishes they could body check.

“It would be so much funner,” said Aarts. “But it probably wouldn’t be a good idea.”

Aarts said she enjoys talking trash.

“I like to get under their skins. I try to get them mad. It helps our team a little. I have my ways [to make them mad]. But I just say things they say to me,” said Aarts, who hears an earful from opponents.

She succeeds in irritating opponents, according to sophomore linemate Karen Droog.

“Nobody likes her. She’s aggressive, she lays out hits. She drives them crazy. She’s definitely a yapper,” said right winger Droog. “I think that’s great. She takes them off their game a little bit. It makes the game more fun.”

Maine coach Rick Filighera said Aarts really irked Dartmouth College’s players a couple of weeks ago.

“Their coach [Judy Parish Oberting] leaned over to me during one of the games and asked me to tell Meagan to stop talking to their bench,” said Filighera.

Aarts said her upbringing has a lot to do with her feistiness.

“I have two older brothers who used to beat on me when I was little. That’s where I think it comes from,” said Aarts.

But Aarts is much more than just a hard-nosed trash talker.

She also happens to be Maine’s leading scorer with 22 points on 12 goals and 10 assists. And, yes, she also leads the 7-8-1 Bears in penalty minutes with 26.

“She has been awesome this year,” said Droog. “She has scored a lot of goals and has played real well offensively.”

Filighera added that Aarts has taken on “more of a leadership role” thanks to her maturation

Aarts concurs.

“I think I’ve matured. I’m trying to be more of a leader. I try to get people pumped up,” said Aarts.

Sophomore defenseman Emily Stevens said Aarts “is one of the players who gets us going all the time. When she works hard, it makes all of us work hard.”

Aarts had a good freshman season in which she notched 12 goals and six assists in 29 games to tie for fourth on the team in scoring.

She has already surpassed that with 18 regular season games still remaining.

“I’ve learned a lot. Hopefully, it will continue,” said Aarts.

She credits a lot of her success this season to linemates Droog and junior center Jarin Sjogren.

“I have good linemates and that has helped me out. We’re getting to know each other a little better. At the beginning of the season, we were switching lines all the time and I’d go into games having no idea what our center was going to do,” said Aarts.

“I know, most of the time, what Jarin is going to do now,” said Aarts who concluded the 2001 portion of the schedule with both goals in a 3-2 loss to Harvard last Sunday.

Aarts has been able to put up impressive numbers even with a right index finger that won’t straighten out due to a farming accident when she was 3. She caught her hand in a [pig] feed auger.

“My finger was hanging by a piece of skin,” said Aarts. “But it doesn’t bother me. It gets purple in the winter sometimes. That’s it. I can write with it. I can do everything else. I just can’t straighten it out.”

But she does try to straighten out opponents.