Penn State women's ice hockey club

Andrea Lavelle with her trophy for winning most valuable player at the 2002 ACHA National Tournament

Penn State's first women's hockey 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 (then the university's sole ice facility), as coach.[3] The Lady Icers' first game, a 5–4 win over the Susquehanna Rockettes (an adult club team), took place on February 1, 1997.[4]

The Lady Icers' most successful period began in 1999–2000 when it joined a conference known as the Mid-Atlantic Women's Collegiate Hockey Association along with many of the university's traditional rivals from other sports like the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Maryland and Syracuse University and ran up a perfect 8–0–0 league mark in the regular season, then defeated Pittsburgh 2–0 in the MAWCHA playoff championship game.[5] Penn State would go on to repeat as MAWCHA regular season champions in 2000–01 and take the Delaware Valley Collegiate Hockey Conference regular season and playoff titles in 2002–03.

In 2000, the ACHA initiated its first women's division, with the Lady Icers as one of its inaugural members (the team would play in what was the ACHA's sole women's division through the 2005–06 season, and subsequently in Division 1 after the ACHA formed a second women's division). PSU participated in each of the ACHA's first four women's national championship tournaments (and six overall), peaking with a third-place finish in 2002's edition[6] led by coach Billie Willits. The stars of that 2001–02 team included ACHA player of the year and tournament most valuable player Andrea Lavelle,[7] as well as Katie King, who finished her career in 2005 as the top scorer in Lady Icers history.[8]

The team helped launch the ECWHL in 2003 and would remain in the conference through the rest of its years in the ACHA. However, PSU struggled competitively through the middle part of the 2000s, thanks to issues with recruitment and retention, coaching continuity and cash flow – including a low point when the Lady Icers had to cancel a trip to the 2007 ECWHL playoffs for financial reasons.[9] Mo Stroemel began his four years as head coach in the 2007–08 season, and is credited with stabilizing the club.[10] Under Stroemel's watch, the Lady Icers made a final ACHA National Tournament appearance in 2010.

After years of speculation[11][12] the program transitioned to the NCAA Division I 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 from Terrence Pegula (a Penn State alumnus and billionaire hockey fan) and his wife Kim.[13] The gift, announced on September 17, 2010, primarily was used to finance the construction of a new ice arena and endow scholarships.

Penn State temporarily concluded its time in ACHA Division 1 in February 2012, with eventual NCAA team head coach Josh Brandwene behind the bench. That season, the Lady Icers played a mixed schedule, featuring ACHA and ECWHL opponents as well as eleven games against NCAA Division I and Division III teams – highlighted by Tess Weaver's overtime goal in an upset of NCAA Division I Sacred Heart on January 14, 2012.[14] The team finished the year by claiming the ECWHL regular season title, but then losing to Rhode Island in the ECWHL playoff championship game.[15]

Lady Ice Lions captain Carly Szyszko and Liberty captain Rena Leone take a ceremonial faceoff from Penn State Assistant Athletic Director Joe Battista at the first intercollegiate hockey game in Pegula Ice Arena on September 27, 2013

When the Lady Icers evolved to NCAA status following the 2011–12 season, several former members of that team who were not a part of the NCAA roster formed a new ACHA team at the Division 2 level during the summer of 2012. Mary Kate Tonetti led the push – an effort that would later help her win the ACHA's Off-Ice MVP Award for the 2012–13 season – along with 2011–12 Lady Icers teammates Carly Szyszko, Allie Rothman, Katie Vaughan, Ashton Schaffer and Sarah Eisenhut. Former Lady Icers assistant Patrick Fung was eventually brought on as head coach, while freshmen like Devon Fisk, Mandy Mortach, Jackie Saideh, Nina Elia and Tara Soukup helped fill out a small roster that included just 13 players when the re-christened team played its first-ever game, a 2–1 overtime loss to California (PA) at BladeRunners Ice Complex in Bethel Park, PA.[16]

Penn State's home rink in 2012–13, purportedly, was the same Penn State Ice Pavilion used by the Lady Icers. However, while the team did practice there (using a makeshift locker room with large sheets for walls), their status as a late-arriving first-year team, coupled with scheduling congestion at the soon-to-be-decommissioned single-sheet facility then hosting four intercollegiate hockey teams and other events, meant that they did not play a single on-campus home game. PSU did manage one off-campus home contest, a blowout of Slippery Rock on December 9, 2012 at Galactic Ice in nearby Altoona, PA.[17] The twin themes of a thin schedule entirely on the road and a light roster would dominate most of the regular season, although key wins over Michigan State and particularly over West Chester (then the second-ranked team in the East Region, one of two in ACHA Division 2) helped Penn State sneak into the ACHA National Tournament as the number four team in the East Region, the final available bid.

Few anticipated what came next at the tournament, held at the Ashburn Ice House in Ashburn, VA from March 7–10, 2013: wins over West No. 1 Alaska (2–1) and defending Division 2 national champion Wisconsin-Stout (3–1) on the first two days of the championships. With the top seed in the semifinals already secure after just the pair of games, the Lady Ice Lions tied with North Dakota State (3–3) to close the pool round of the tournament. In the semis, PSU once again ran into UW-Stout, a game that stands as one of the signature contests in team history. With the Blue Devils leading 1–0 midway through the third period, a Soukup shot on the power play from the top of the left circle flew through Fisk and past Stout goalie Kaye Collier. Following the remainder of regulation, a five-minute first overtime and nearly four minutes of a second one, Elia pushed home a third-chance transition goal after tries by Fisk and Elizabeth Denis to send the team to the national championship game. The run ended one win short however, as West Chester overturned an early 2–0 Penn State lead and took the title with a 5–2 victory.[18][19]

The 2013–14 season was marked by both continuity and change. Nearly all of the senior-free 2012–13 squad returned (with second-leading scorer Mortach a notable exception), this time with a little bit of depth, thanks to a strong freshman class including future captains Lucy Yeatman, Anna Marcus and Cassie Dunne. Newness came in form of the Penn State's joining a conference for the first time, College Hockey East (CHE), a league that included Cal, West Chester and Delaware and guaranteed a robust schedule. PSU's other major issue during 2012–13 was cured with the opening of $90 million Pegula Ice Arena, a twin-sheet facility that allowed the team a permanent locker room and largely cured scheduling headaches. The Lady Ice Lions played the first intercollegiate hockey game in the arena's history, topping Liberty on September 27, 2013.[20]

Other than, notably, an intense rivalry with Cal that saw the teams split six overall meetings in 2013–14, high expectations and the remainder of the schedule proved no burden as Penn State ran up a 14–2–2 regular season record, 6–2–2 of which came within the CHE to take the league's regular-season title. Although the Vulcans defeated the Lady Ice Lions in the CHE's playoff championship game, a bid to the 2014 ACHA National Tournament at Fred Rust Ice Arena in Newark, DE was expected, with PSU placing in ACHA Division 2's East Region's top two during every 2013–14 ranking period (in stark contrast to the previous season).[21]

At nationals a familiar pattern emerged, as Penn State opened with another tight win over Alaska (3–2), then topped Delaware (3–0) to once again wrap up a trip to the semifinals in short order. This time though, the repeat low-stakes game against NDSU and eventual Zoë M. Harris Player of the Year Kacie Johnson resulted in a dominating 5–2 Penn State win featuring two goals by Marcus. Fisk then added her own brace, with Vaughan making 20 necessary saves, as the Lady Ice Lions held on for a 2–1 victory over frequent nemesis Cal to head back to the ACHA Division 2 championship game. However, PSU once again came up short in the final, this time to Iowa State and tournament MVP Millie Luedtke, who scored the game's only goal on the power play with 7:21 remaining in the third period.[22]

Following the quick success of consecutive second-place finishes in ACHA Division 2, Penn State elected to move back to ACHA Division 1 for the 2014–15 season. As part of the jump, the team initiated membership in the ECWHL, significant as the league occupied by the previous Lady Icers team from 2003–12.

Coinciding with the division change, the Lady Ice Lions received a significant boost in the effort to succeed in Division 1 in the form of four players cut from PSU's NCAA Division I team during the 2014 offseason: forwards Darby Kern, Cara Mendelson and Katie Murphy, along with defenseman Madison Smiddy. Mendelson, Murphy and Smiddy had spent their freshman years in 2011–12 as Lady Icers before joining the NCAA team for two seasons, while Kern was a year younger with no prior ACHA experience. A fifth NCAA cut, Jessica Desorcie, also joined the Women's Ice Hockey Club as an assistant coach.[23] Numerous key players from the Division 2 seasons also remained, including Fisk, Schaffer, Saideh, Elia and Tonetti, while the regular incoming class was highlighted by Kelly Watson, Riley O'Connor, Claire Gauthier and Tarika Embar. Tonetti, despite being a senior, was also an addition in a sense, as she was finally able to move back to her natural goaltending position after two years playing forward in order to balance out the occasionally-wobbly roster count.

Even with the team's rapid growth, an uneven start to the season followed, as an opening sweep at Vermont was tailed by a somewhat uninspiring pair of wins against Delaware (now in a lower division, of course) and a goal-less weekend at Massachusetts. Slowly but surely though, big wins started rolling in. The first major blow was a 3–2 win over Rhode Island on November 9, 2014,[24] and a 2–1 overtime result against UMass followed on January 10, 2015.[25] The Rams were fourth in the ACHA rankings at the time of the meeting, while the Minutewomen were fifth.

The biggest though, by far, was a 4–3 victory over top-ranked Miami on January 18, 2015.[26] Smiddy scored twice in the victory, including the opening goal and the game winner with 3:16 left. Saideh and O'Connor also scored goals that stalled the hosts' momentum at crucial points, while Tonetti offered 33 saves in one of the best performances of her career. Prior to the PSU win, the RedHawks had a 31-game unbeaten streak dating back 359 days, as well as a 25-game unbeaten streak at Goggin Ice Center. Additionally, MU had been the number one team in every ACHA Division 1 ranking issued since the beginning of the 2013–14 season (a streak that would last until that October) and had won the 2014 ACHA Division 1 title to initiate a run of three straight ACHA championship games (winning again in 2016).

Thanks largely to the Miami win – and despite a loss to URI in the ECWHL playoff semifinals that nearly undid everything – Penn State qualified for the 2015 ACHA National Tournament at York City Ice Arena in York, PA.[27] However, the team saw a quicker exit than had been customary to that point, losing in overtime to eventual champion Liberty, followed by ties with UMass and Grand Valley State to drop out of the running after the pool round. On an individual level, Kern collected 61 points (on 34 goals and 27 assists) to lead the nation in scoring while being named as a finalist for the Zoë M. Harris Award and taking PSU's first First Team All-American award at the Division 1 level.

Although Kern returned for a senior year in 2015–16 and once again posted stellar numbers (46 points, again among the national leaders), the Lady Ice Lions found their roster turnover too heavy to overcome and took the first step backward in team history, stumbling to a 5–20–2 overall record and finishing unranked. Critical personnel holes included the graduations of Tonetti, Smiddy, Murphy, Mendelson, captain Kim Badorrek and Taylor Nyman (followed by the graduations of Fisk and Schaffer in December 2015, midway through the season) as the team struggled on both ends of the ice – allowing 5.15 goals per game over the course of the year, while enduring a goal drought spanning three full games and parts of two others from November 13, 2015 through January 9, 2016. One highlight came on January 9, 2016 in the form of an overtime victory over eventual ECWHL playoff champion UMass.[28]

^† Although Penn State qualified for the 2010 ECWHL playoffs and was slated to play Massachusetts in the semifinals, the team was unable to travel to hosting Rhode Island due to weather concerns, resulting in UMass' automatic advancement to the championship game.

^‡ In the 2007 ECWHL playoffs, Penn State was originally scheduled to play Rhode Island in the semifinal round. However, PSU was unable to travel to the playoffs due to budgetary reasons, resulting in URI's automatic advancement to the championship game.[50]

^ Lady Ice Lions players who spent part of their careers with the Lady Icers program in 2010–11 and 2011–12 have statistics from the previous team included.

^ Lady Ice Lions players who spent part of their careers with the Lady Icers program in 2010–11 and 2011–12 have statistics from the previous team included.

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ACHA Division 1 rankings were issued five times per year in both 2014–15 and 2015–16, with the top eight in the fourth in-season ranking (fifth overall), released in February, receiving a bid to the ACHA National Tournament. Beginning with the 2016–17 season, the ACHA tabulated rankings each week during the season and issued them on Tuesdays following weekends including games.[66]

During both of Penn State's seasons in Division 2, every division team was assigned to either the East Region (as PSU was) or the West Region. Rankings were issued quarterly during the season. The fourth and final ranking, released in February, determined bids to and seeding for the ACHA National Tournament, with the top four teams in each region receiving invitations.

The ACHA began compiling a national ranking in 2003–04, issued four times per season, with the top twelve (from 2003–04 through 2008–09) or eight (from 2009–10 through 2011–12) in the fourth ranking, released in February, receiving a bid to the ACHA National Tournament.

From 2000–01 through 2002–03, regional rankings were the sole method for determining ACHA National Tournament bids. The inaugural 2000–01 season featured teams divided into East and West Regions, with the top four from each in February's final ranking invited to nationals. For 2001–02 and 2002–03, the setup was expanded to include East, Central and West Regions. Under that system, the top two from each region were invited to nationals, along with two wild card teams. In 2003–04, the tournament field was expanded to 12 teams, and a national ranking was introduced. The latter development diminished the importance of the regional rankings, as the national rankings were used to determine nationals bids. Regional champions were still awarded an autobid, however, even if ranked outside of the top 12 nationally. In 2004–05, growth in the number of ACHA women's teams resulted in an increase to four regions – Northeast, Southeast, Central and West – although things reverted to East, Central and West in 2007–08. The 2009–10 season was notable both for the fact that the tournament field was reduced back to eight teams and as the final year of the regional system, which had become largely antiquated as regional champions generally had little issue placing highly in the national rankings.

The Lady Icers were placed in the East or Southeast Region for the duration of the regional ranking's existence.

Awards earned during the 2012–13 and 2013–14 seasons were in ACHA Division 2, all others were in ACHA Division 1

During the 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons, the ACHA presented a series of monthly awards for both men's and women's divisions.

As a precursor to World University Games participation, the ACHA assembled a women's select team that toured Geneva, Switzerland, Chamonix, France and Méribel, France during April 2010. The team included Lady Icers players Sara Chroman, Heather Rossi and Denise Rohlik.[91] Its final record overseas was 2–2–0, including two close losses to the France women's national ice hockey team and two decisive wins over local club teams.[92]

Rather infamously, from a Penn State perspective, the former Lady Icers team struggled mightily with perennial contender Rhode Island while both were ECWHL members from 2003–12, with the Rams owning a 34–2–1 record against PSU during that time. Early in the Women's Ice Hockey Club's first ACHA Division 1 season, the newer team gave some indication of a change in era by earning a 3–2 win on November 9, 2014 at Bradford R. Boss Arena to split the teams' first-ever series. Cara Mendelson, Anna Marcus and Riley O'Connor scored for the Lady Ice Lions, with the latter's game-winning goal helping her subsequently collect ACHA rookie of the month honors.[74] By the end of 2014–15, both PSU and URI found themselves on the bubble to receive one of the eight bids to the ACHA National Tournament given based on the end-of-season D1 rankings. With an automatic bid set to go outside of the top eight to the Western Women's Collegiate Hockey League champion and the Lady Ice Lions and Rams entering an ECWHL semifinal matchup during the weekend before that decisive poll ranked eighth and seventh, respectively, the result of the game was seen as effectively deciding a tournament bid. The victorious team would not only have that final word of course, but also the head-to-head advantage in the three-game season series. However, although Rhode Island won the game 4–1 with Kristy Kennedy scoring twice in the late going, Penn State was still selected for nationals while URI was left out for the first time since 2003.[93]

Whatever payback was owed for the nationals bid was exacted pretty thoroughly during the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons, as a resurgent Rams team topped a struggling PSU in all ten meetings during those years, including second and third consecutive victories in the ECWHL semifinals.[94]

UMass has been arguably the ECWHL's top team since Penn State's re-entry through the Women's Ice Hockey Club, with league playoff titles and ACHA tournament bids in 2014–15, 2015–16 and 2016–17. Still, PSU has managed a pair of overtime wins against the Minutewomen in twelve regular season meetings.[25][28] The first was on the strength of Mendelson's winner on January 10, 2015, with the 2–1 victory against then-fifth-ranked UMass a hefty pillar in the Lady Ice Lions' case for eventual inclusion in the 2015 ACHA National Tournament. Almost exactly one year later, on January 9, 2016, and with the Minutewomen again holding down the five spot in the ACHA rankings, Darian Dempsey provided the knockout punch in a 4–3 contest that saw PSU come back from a 3–1 deficit. Liz Tuorinsky forced the extra period on a blast from the point with 1:46 left in regulation. UMass, however, took the other ends of each of those series at Pegula Ice Arena in narrow decisions and has won each of the six games played at their home William D. Mullins Center.

The Minutewomen are the only ECWHL team Penn State has faced at the ACHA National Tournament in the post-2012 era. In that game, on March 5, 2015, the Lady Ice Lions ran out to a 3–1 lead after two periods but had to settle for a 3–3 tie after UMass' Amanda Abromson scored with 1:04 left in regulation.[95]

The Women's Ice Hockey Club's first-ever games were a pair of losses at Cal on October 6 and 7, 2012, but the rivalry between the teams didn't fully ramp up until both joined the newly formed women's division of College Hockey East in 2013–14. The Lady Ice Lions and Vulcans spent that entire campaign jockeying for first place in the conference, first place in ACHA Division 2's East Region and, of course, with each other. During the regular season, the teams split a pair of games at Cal's Rostraver Ice Garden in October, then another pair late in the year at Pegula Ice Arena. The final game of those four, a 3–1 Penn State win on February 1, 2014, clinched the CHE regular season championship for the Lady Ice Lions after the Vulcans had put that outcome in doubt with a heated 5–2 win the night before. However, Cal forced a different sort of split – in the CHE titles – with a 2–1 win over PSU in the league playoff final at York City Ice Arena in York, PA behind a goal and an assist from Megan Cooper, which also enabled the western Pennsylvanians to finish with the East Region's top seed heading into the ACHA National Tournament. At nationals though, Penn State would manage the last word by getting a pair of first-period Devon Fisk tallies and hanging on to end the Vulcans' season in the ACHA semifinals.

The Vulcans hold the series advantage with a 5–3–0 record, as the two teams have not played since PSU's move to ACHA Division 1 and out of the CHE following the 2013–14 season.

Late in the Lady Ice Lions' first season, 2012–13, the team managed a road split with West Chester, the squad then ranked second in ACHA Division 2's East Region. In the victory, by a 2–1 count on January 26, 2013, Fisk and Tara Soukup offered goals, while Katie Vaughan made 24 saves. With only three other wins against two other ACHA opponents during an abbreviated regular season and neither of those victims finishing higher than seventh in their region, the WCU win constituted a major reason for Penn State's inclusion in the 2013 ACHA National Tournament as one of the top four in the East Region. The Rams, however, won the season's rubber and most important match by ending PSU's Cinderella tournament run with a 5–2 victory in the national championship game on March 10, 2013 behind three goals from Zoë M. Harris Player of the Year and eventual tournament MVP Becky Dobson.[71]

The following season, West Chester joined CHE along with Penn State and Cal and played four more games against the Lady Ice Lions. The first two of those, at Pegula Ice Arena on November 9 and 10, 2013, saw PSU gain a measure of revenge with decisive 3–0 and 6–3 wins in a powder keg of a series that saw three Elizabeth Denis goals as well as a fight between Soukup and Dobson.[96]

Like the California (PA) series, the West Chester rivalry has been dormant since Penn State's move to ACHA Division 1 with the record presently 4–2–1 in PSU's favor.

Thanks in part to a weather-related cancellation in 2013[97] and a shift of Buffalo's team from ACHA Division 1 to Division 2 during the same 2014 offseason that saw the Women's Ice Hockey Club move from Division 2 to Division 1, PSU has not met UB since a Lady Icers sweep at the Ice Pavilion on September 30 and October 1, 2011. However, prior to 2011 when the teams played regularly (including as ECWHL rivals for eight seasons), an intense rivalry existed. On December 1, 2001, Penn State and Buffalo (then known as the "Freeze") engaged in a post-game brawl.[98] The ACHA issued suspensions for four players from each team, each of which were for one game, except for a five-game ban handed to Lady Icers superstar Andrea Lavelle, who "was clearly an instigator in the situation and refused to obey the repeated directions of the referees to vacate the area".[99] Penn State-Buffalo contests in the aftermath of the brawl saw vulgar insults traded between players and fans.[100]

• Kate Connolly (2001–2005) – International Ice Hockey Federation lineswoman frequently selected for top IIHF events, including the 2015 IIHF Women's World Championship and the 2014 IIHF World Women's U18 Championship
• Paige Harrington (2011–2012) – Player for the Buffalo Beauts and the Boston Pride of the National Women's Hockey League
• Andrea Lavelle (1998–2002) – Player for the Beatrice Aeros of the National Women's Hockey League
• Tara Wheeler (2002–2004) – 2008 Miss Virginia and contestant at Miss America 2009