Worcester’s Holy Cross Teammates to Face Off at Women’s Hockey Worlds

Two Holy Cross hockey players will face each other at the 2026 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Sophomore defender Anna Billa will play for Austria and sophomore forward Naemi Herzig for Switzerland when the tournament runs Nov. 6-16 in Denmark, Holy Cross Athletics announced Oct. 27.

Both countries are in Group A with the United States, Czechia and Germany, so the Worcester teammates are scheduled to meet on Nov. 10 in Esbjerg.

Who the Holy Cross players are

Anna Billa, a 5-foot-4 defender from Vienna majoring in economics, has made 20 appearances for Austria’s national team over five years, with one assist, according to her Holy Cross roster biography. She helped Austria win the 2025 IIHF World Championship Division I Group A title, which earned the country promotion to the top division, and she captained Austria’s under-18 team in 2023-24. As a freshman she played 31 games, blocked 30 shots and was named to the Hockey East All-Academic Team.

Naemi Herzig, a 5-foot-5 forward, has 28 national-team appearances for Switzerland over three years, with two goals and one assist, and won a bronze medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Holy Cross said.

By the numbers

Source: Holy Cross Athletics, Oct. 27, 2026. Holy Cross did not list Billa’s 2026-27 point total; her career figures match her freshman totals.

Herzig has scored at a 0.63 points-per-game pace through eight Holy Cross games this season, and her four goals already equal more than a third of her 11 career college goals, according to TBR calculations from the school’s figures. Billa’s 20 caps across five seasons work out to about four national-team games a year; Herzig’s 28 across three seasons average just over nine.

World Championship schedule for Austria and Switzerland

All times are local in Denmark, which is six hours ahead of Worcester for this tournament after U.S. clocks fall back Nov. 1, so a 7 p.m. puck drop is 1 p.m. ET and a 3 p.m. start is 9 a.m. ET.

Group games are in Esbjerg. Schedule from Holy Cross Athletics; ET conversions by TBR.

What it means for Holy Cross women’s hockey

The Crusaders play their home games at the Hart Center on the Mount St. James campus in Worcester. Billa and Herzig will miss college games during the tournament window; Holy Cross has not said which ones. Austria’s group-stage meeting with the United States on Nov. 9 gives Billa a game against the U.S. team, which Herzig and Switzerland face three days earlier in the opener.

The selections also put two members of the same Worcester college roster on opposite benches, a rare head-to-head matchup for the Crusaders, The Worcester Guardian noted.

For the rest of the local winter sports calendar, see our Worcester sports guide to the Railers and Holy Cross basketball, and if you are heading east for a game, our Worcester to Boston train schedule and fares.

Sources

• Holy Cross Athletics: Billa & Herzig set to play in IIHF Women’s World Championship (Oct. 27, 2026)
• Holy Cross Athletics: Anna Billa roster biography
• The Worcester Guardian: Two Holy Cross hockey players selected for world championship

Additional sources

• BVM Sports: Holy Cross Hockey: Billa, Herzig Picked for 2026 IIHF Worlds

Featured photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (file photo of the Hart Center ice rink at the College of the Holy Cross, 2024).