‘They love each other’: How Penn State women’s hockey is enjoying unprecedented success
The No. 9 Penn State women’s hockey team closed out its home slate undefeated at Pegula Ice Arena for the first time ever with back-to-back wins over the Rochester Institute of Technology on Tuesday and Wednesday. Now, those within the program can’t settle on who gets the credit.
“I think it’s the players that do the work,” fourth-year head coach Jeff Kampersal said after Wednesday’s 7-1 victory. “This year, I’ve done the least compared to the first three years.”
The players, however, give their coach a little bit more credit.
“He’s a very team-first guy,” junior defender Izzy Heminger said of Kampersal after Tuesday’s 2-0 win. “You can definitely see how much our team trusts each other this year, rather than like maybe in the past years. He’s really leading us down the right path.”
But the fact that no one can decide who should be lauded for the Nittany Lions’ unprecedented success is the best problem the program has had in its nine-year existence.
Four years after allegations of emotional abuse led to the departure of former head coach Josh Brandwene, Penn State is no longer plagued with off-the-ice controversies. The Nittany Lions are winning, and they’re having fun in the process.
“It looks like they love to play hockey,” Kampersal said. “It looks like they love each other. The love for one another and the support for one another really kinda has nothing to do with hockey, but it does — it shows on the ice.”
Of course, the culture that Kampersal and his team have built didn’t happen overnight.
The team has spent “a lot of time” with sports psychologist Carl Ohlson the past three seasons. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, players haven’t visited with Ohlson as frequently this year, but he’s still made sure to check in on the program occasionally through Zoom calls.
Kampersal challenged his players early on in his tenure to have a vision for the future of the program. And now, the group — especially the seniors — is reaping the benefits of sticking to their plan.
“It’s been incredible to see what we’ve been able to accomplish just in this year alone,” said senior forward Natalie Heising, who is second on the team in points with 20. “The previous years — my freshman, sophomore and junior year — it was just a lot of learning, a lot of figuring out what we wanted this program to be and kinda figuring out our coaches.”
Penn State currently leads the College Hockey America conference with a 14-1-2 record and 30 points. The next closest team is Robert Morris, which has 10 wins and 21 points. With less than three weeks until the postseason, claiming the regular-season CHA title for the first time in program history should be all but a guarantee for the Nittany Lions.
Even with the success they’ve enjoyed thus far, though, they aren’t satisfied just yet.
With four road games left in the regular season — two against RIT and two against Mercyhurst — the Nittany Lions are looking to sustain their momentum as they head into the CHA Tournament in early March.
And while what Penn State has achieved may be a surprise to some, those within the program know it’s far from a happy accident.
“The team that shows up with the best players usually wins,” Kampersal said, “and we have some of those players now.”
