Amber Yung didn't skirt the issue.

She said her involvement in ice hockey, a fast, physical game that demands conspicuous toughness from its participants, is rooted -- to some extent, at least -- in frilly fashion.

"We went to a public skating session when I was -- I don't know -- maybe 9 years old," said Yung, an 18-year-old from Rockville. "My mother saw that I was pretty good, so for my next birthday she enrolled me in a learn-to-play-hockey program" at SkateNation.

But why hockey? Why not figure skating?

Yung laughed. "I wasn't what you'd call small when I was a child. I was always playing like a boy with my brother; you know, running and rolling around on the ground. Mom said she thought I needed a rougher sport [than figure skating]. She said she couldn't see me wearing those little dresses and doing those little spins and turns."

Good call, Mom. Yung, who graduated last year from Patrick Henry High School, has since blossomed into one of the most promising young female hockey players in the United States. The rising sophomore at Providence College was named this month to the USA Hockey women's under-22 team. Many regard the feat as an essential first step on the road toward Olympic participation.

Yung and hockey may have found one another by happy coincidence, but they are in fact a perfect match, snug and comfortable, much like a foot inside the boot of a custom-fitted skate. Yung, a sturdy 5-10 defender, flirted with other sports -- she holds Patrick Henry's track records in the indoor and outdoor 1,600 and the outdoor 800 -- but none could shake her devotion to her true love.

"I like the speed," said Yung, a scholarship player at Providence. "I like the fact that something is always happening, that you have to think and react quickly. I like the fact that it's so physical -- that was always the best thing about playing with guys" as a youngster.

Most of all, she said, "I like the emphasis on teamwork. I like the fact that you can't win a game by yourself. I like -- no, I love -- the feeling you get when you're working with other people toward a common goal and you know that all of them want that goal just as badly as you do."

Did someone mention toughness? Yung certainly qualifies. She played from sixth through ninth grade on a boy's travel team. More than a few male opponents singled her out for inordinately abrasive treatment. How did she respond? The question seemed to puzzle her. "I dealt with it," she said. If you're a hockey player, that's what you do.

Grit and commitment, in this case, walk hand-in-hand. Yung played from 10th through 12th grade with the Washington Pride girls program. She and her mother traveled from Rockville to Washington's Maryland suburbs -- a round-trip drive of nearly five hours -- three or four times a week. Sometimes more.

Through it all, Yung maintained a singular focus: improvement.

"I'm a very determined person," she said. "I know there's always room to get better, and I try to keep that in mind every time I play or practice. I want to be the best player I can be. Perfection is what I'm striving for. If I can't be perfect, I want to come as close as I possibly can."

Which is why Yung doesn't regard her presence on the U-22 national team as a license for smugness.

"My ultimate goal is to play in the Olympics," she said. "So I'm going to keep working. I'm going to keep striving. I can't relax. Not now. Not when I'm starting to get close."

The U-22 team will represent the United States in a pair of high-profile events next month: the Women's National Festival in Lake Placid, N.Y., and a three-game series with Canada in Pierrefonds, Quebec.