The weather may be heating up but Weinberg freshman Brittany Bettendorf is anxious to hit the ice.

Going to college often means ice skating aficionados are forced to hang up their skates. But a conversation with her cousin convinced Bettendorf that it didn’t have to be that way.

Bettendorf’s cousin, who started a synchronized skating club at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, inspired Bettendorf to do the same at Northwestern.

Since an informational meeting in March, Bettendorf said 33 skaters have signed up for the team, called the Purple Line. Many of those interested are experienced in figure skating, but Bettendorf said she is more concerned about skaters’ abilities to move collectively than to do difficult spins and jumps.

“Where it gets complicated is skating together as a group,” she said.

To master skating as a team, the group will practice four times a week, with the two on-ice practices preceded by an off-ice workout.

Bettendorf said she hopes to hold tryouts before the summer to put together an initial team and elect officers. Tryouts will be held again in the fall.

The club can be self-sufficient through fund raising and member dues, but Bettendorf said she hopes Purple Line can become an official club sport to obtain easier access to university vehicles and better represent NU.

“When we go out on the ice we would like to be announced as a Northwestern University team,” she said.