Penn State Nittany Lions women's ice hockey is a

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the g ...

program that has represented Penn State University in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I and

College Hockey America College Hockey America (CHA) is a college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The conference is made up of five women’s teams, with two in Pennsylvania; two in New ...

(CHA) since the 2012–13 season. The program was preceded by a club team that competed at the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division 1 level, primarily as a member of

Eastern Collegiate Women's Hockey League The Eastern Collegiate Women's Hockey League (ECWHL) is an American Collegiate Hockey Association Women's Division 1 club level hockey-only college athletic conference for women's hockey teams. It is one of four ACHA Women's Division 1 conference ...

(ECWHL). Penn State plays its home games at

Pegula Ice Arena The Pegula Ice Arena is a 6,014-seat multi-purpose arena in University Park, Pennsylvania on the campus of Penn State University. The facility is located on the corner of Curtin Road and University Drive near the Bryce Jordan Center. The arena i ...

University Park, Pennsylvania University Park (also referred to as Penn State University Park) is the name given to the Pennsylvania State University's main campus located in both State College and College Township, Pennsylvania, United States. The campus post office was ...

History

ACHA years

Penn State's first women's hockey team – a club team called the "Lady Icers" – began play in the 1996–97 season, after students Ellen Bradley and Kathy Beckford recruited players from around campus and Vinnie Scalamogna, the assistant manager of the

Penn State Ice Pavilion The Penn State Ice Pavilion was a 1,350-seat ice arena on the campus of The Pennsylvania State University located in University Park, Pennsylvania, United States. The ice arena included an NHL regulation sized 200' x 85' ice sheet as well as a 45 ...

(then the university's sole ice facility), as coach. The Lady Icers' first game, a 5–4 win over the Susquehanna Rockettes (an adult club team), took place on February 1, 1997. The team was intermittently successful over its 16 years of existence, winning six conference regular season or playoff titles and qualifying for the ACHA National Tournament six times, peaking with a third-place finish at the end of the 2001-02 season. Penn State concluded its time in the ACHA in February 2012, with eventual NCAA leader Josh Brandwene as head coach. That season, the Lady Icers played a mixed schedule, featuring ACHA and ECWHL opponents as well as eleven games against

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

and

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

teams. PSU finished the year by claiming the ECWHL regular season title, but then losing to

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...

in the league's playoff championship game.

Move to NCAA

After years of speculation the program transitioned to the

level along with the PSU men's ice hockey team for the 2012–13 season. The move was made possible thanks to a Penn State-record $88 million (later increased to $102 million) donation, announced on September 17, 2010, from

Terrence Pegula Terrence Michael Pegula (born March 27, 1951) is an American billionaire businessman and petroleum engineer. He is the owner of Pegula Sports and Entertainment which owns the Buffalo Sabres of the National Hockey League (NHL) and, with his wife ...

, a Penn State alumnus and billionaire hockey fan, and his wife Kim. The donation primarily paid for the completion of a new 5,782-seat, $89 million ice arena to replace the undersized and aging 1,350-seat

, which was deemed inadequate for long-term NCAA play.

opened in September 2013, after the Nittany Lions played their first NCAA season in the Ice Pavilion. In May 2011 the university hired Brandwene as the first varsity women's hockey head coach. On June 21, 2011, former Lady Icers head coach Mo Stroemel and Gina Kearns joined Brandwene's staff as assistants. Kearns had been an assistant with the Neumann University Knights, coaching there from 2009 until 2011. In September 2011, Penn State was accepted into

for the 2012–13 season, becoming the fifth member of the conference after Wayne State abruptly ended their women's hockey program, dropping league membership to only four teams for the 2011–12 season.

NCAA

The Nittany Lions launched their NCAA era in stunning fashion, with a 5–3 victory over

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

at Gutterson Fieldhouse on October 6, 2012, helped by a pair of goals each from Micayla Catanzariti and Shannon Yoxheimer. Behind a roster led by forward and captain Taylor Gross, forward Jenna Welch and goaltender Nicole Paniccia (each a transfer from the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

), and featuring eight Lady Icers holdovers (including Gross) along with 17 freshmen, PSU climbed to 5–8–1 overall on November 17, 2012 with its first-ever CHA win, 3–2 over fellow former ACHA program

Lindenwood Lindenwood may refer to a place in the United States: *Lindenwood, Illinois *Lindenwood, Queens, New York *Lindenwood Cemetery, Fort Wayne, Indiana In education: * Lindenwood University Lindenwood University is a private university in St. Ch ...

. The Nittany Lions skidded the rest of the way through, managing only two wins (both against

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their st ...

Chatham University Chatham University is a private university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally founded as a women's college, it began enrolling men in undergraduate programs in 2015. It enrolls about 2,110 students, including 1,002 undergraduate students an ...

) over the final 21 games of the season, including a sweep by

RIT Rit is a brand of dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied i ...

in the first round of the CHA playoffs. The 2013–14 season again began encouragingly, with another win at

and a split in the team's first

games, on October 18 and 19, 2013 against

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

. However, despite eight ties or overtime losses and thanks largely to scoring just 1.36 times per game, the Nittany Lions regressed to four wins overall and were once again swept by

in the first round of the CHA playoffs. PSU found its greatest success in the NCAA era during the 2014-15 season, when the team posted its first winning record (17-16-4), highest CHA standings position (tied for third) and first CHA playoff series win (against Lindenwood) before falling to Syracuse in the CHA semifinals, thanks largely to the Minnetonka, MN-native duo of Laura Bowman and Amy Petersen, who combined for 27 goals. One obvious season highlight was a December 2014 sweep of then-No. 6 Mercyhurst, the Nittany Lions' first and second wins against a ranked team and against the perennially-powerful Lakers. However, the team slid slightly backwards in 2015-16, matching the previous season's CHA standings placement and playoff results (a first-round sweep of RIT followed by a triple-overtime loss to Syracuse in the semifinals) but finishing only 12-19-6 overall.

2014 offseason controversy

A few weeks after the conclusion of the 2013–14 season, a group of thirteen players spoke with Penn State Associate Athletic Director Charmelle Green to "express their frustration with Brandwene and concerns about the future of the program." Seven of this group were subsequently cut from the team, including Jessica Desorcie, Darby Kern, Cara Mendelson, Brooke Meyer, Katie Murphy, Birdie Shaw and Madison Smiddy. Murphy was the most outspoken of the cuts, telling Penn State student newspaper ''

The Daily Collegian The ''Daily Collegian'' is a student-produced news outlet, with a newspaper and website, that is published independently at the Pennsylvania State University. The newspaper is printed twice a week during the fall and spring semesters, and once ...

'' that " randwenetalked to us like we were children. Three or four weeks he would go without even looking at me or without even talking to me. He’s a bully. That’s the best word I can think of for him," and that "The girls don’t respect the coach because he hasn’t earned our respect at all. He’s been my coach for three years and I tried my hardest to respect him and I still don’t have the respect for him that I should have for a head coach because he’s not a good coach." Over the days following Murphy's comments, others formerly involved with the program, including strength and conditioning coach Rob McLean as well as outgoing transfer players Katie Zinn and Taylor McGee also spoke critically of Brandwene.

2016 offseason controversy

The program again found itself the subject of negative headlines in March 2016, as Murphy, Mendelson, Shaw and others told or retold their stories to ''The Daily Collegian''. One of the chief allegations concerned the handling of the 2014 complaint, with Murphy and Shaw claiming that Green promised confidentiality to the group filing the complaint before subsequently burying the issue and turning their names over to Brandwene, who cut them - actions that would appear to be in violation of Penn State athletics guidelines. Several stories of emotional abuse were included as well. One anonymous former player said that Brandwene told her to lose weight in order to play more, while Shaw recounted an incident in which Brandwene physically knocked her stick from her hands while saying "don't worry, you won't be needing that today." Shaw also said that Brandwene ruined the sport for her, to the point where she wouldn't allow her kids to play. As with the 2014 situation, others came forward in the following days, including 2011-12 ACHA team players Katie Vaughan, Ashton Schaffer and Abbey Dufoe. Vaughan said that "it became clear to me that this man has a destructive personality and he meant the team no well-being" while recalling a conversation involving Brandwene pressing her about personal issues. Both she and Schaffer detailed other instances of

emotional manipulation Emotions are mental states brought on by neurophysiological changes, variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure. There is currently no scientific consensus on a definitio ...

that almost caused them to end decade-plus playing careers, while Dufoe flatly said that "no one should be treated like that." One father of an anonymous current player said that his daughter would transfer if Brandwene is retained as coach, and that "he has heard other parents say the same thing."

2017 offseason coaching change

On April 19, 2017, Josh Brandwene retired from coaching, and on June 1, 2017, Penn State announced the hiring of longtime Princeton women's hockey head coach Jeff Kampersal to lead the Penn State women's hockey team beginning with the 2017–18 season.

Season by season results

All-time scoring leader

* Natalie Heising, 74 (G), 63 (A), 137 (P)

Season by season goaltending leaders

(Minimum 60 minutes played)

Awards and honors

*Josie Bothun, 2020–21 CHA Goaltender of the Year *Natalie Heising, 2020–21 CHA Individual Sportsmanship Award *Jeff Kampersal, 2020–21 CHA Coach of the Year * Kiara Zanon, 2020–21 CHA Rookie of the Year Award *Kiara Zanon, 2020–21 CHA Player of the Year Award *Kiara Zanon, 2020–21

Women's Hockey Commissioners Association National Rookie of the Year The Women's Hockey Commissioners Association National Rookie of the Year is awarded yearly to the rookie player in NCAA Division I women's college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though lea ...

*Kiara Zanon, 2020–21 Second Team CCM/AHCA All-American *Kiara Zanon, 2020–21 USCHO National All-Rookie Team

Season award winners

* Penn State, 2014–15 CHA Team Sportsmanship Award

Current roster

As of August 29, 2022.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Penn State Nittany Lions Women's Ice Hockey W Ice hockey teams in Pennsylvania College Hockey America teams