{"id":509330,"date":"2026-03-18T09:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/509330\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T09:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:50:13","slug":"penn-state-womens-hockey-not-done-yet-ahead-of-programs-first-frozen-four-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/509330\/","title":{"rendered":"Penn State Women’s Hockey ‘Not Done Yet’ Ahead Of Program’s First Frozen Four Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a 3-0 win against UCONN to win the NC Regional Final<\/a>, Penn State women\u2019s hockey is in uncharted territory: the Frozen Four.<\/p>\n

This breakthrough comes in head coach Jeff Kampersal\u2019s ninth season with the team. When he took over, the women\u2019s hockey program was in a rough spot, having only one winning season in its history. Now, the Nittany Lions have established themselves as a national championship contender, along with four consecutive AHA conference titles and counting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s everything we\u2019ve worked for, but we\u2019re not done yet,\u201d said senior goaltender Katie DeSa.<\/p>\n

The program\u2019s turnaround really kicked into gear with the recruitment of this year\u2019s senior class four years ago. That class not only brought in a group of talent never before seen for Penn State women\u2019s hockey, but also aided in creating a winning culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have this class that is so connected and so strong,\u201d senior forward Maddy Christian commented. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone through this together.\u201d<\/p>\n

With eight players set to graduate after the season, there\u2019s a sense of finality with this week being the last of the year. This group has changed the program for the better, and their future is right on the horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey took an opportunity to make the program what it is now, and it\u2019s really all their hard work, all their setting the standards, making it that way for the younger players and the next wave of Penn Staters to come in here. They know how to be a Penn State women\u2019s ice hockey player,\u201d Kampersal stated. \u201cThey\u2019re history makers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Frozen Four gives the Nittany Lions a national stage that they\u2019ve never seen before. With such a great team, it\u2019s unfortunate to see pretty lackluster attendance throughout the season, but it all could change this weekend at Pegula.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully on Friday, Hockey Valley will show up and support because they [the team] deserve it,\u201d Kampersal noted.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also an opportunity for Penn State to prove that it belongs in the same conversation as other national title contenders. Coming from a smaller conference in the AHA, the Nittany Lions don\u2019t often play the top-tier teams, but the team is determined to show the world that they should be right there with the blue bloods.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe might not always have the big names or get the attention we deserve, but we\u2019re right in the same spot as those teams,\u201d team captain Tessa Janecke remarked.<\/p>\n

Now, at Pegula, the Nittany Lions get to showcase everything they\u2019ve built towards in front of a home crowd in Hockey Valley. It also gives this pivotal graduating class one more chance to leave it all out on the ice in front of a familiar crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna do everything we can for our fans and for each other,\u201d announced senior defenseman Kendall Butze.<\/p>\n

No. 3 Penn State women\u2019s hockey will take on No. 2 Wisconsin in the Frozen Four on Friday, March 20, at Pegula Ice Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m., and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/p>\n

Brian is a freshman from State College, PA, majoring in journalism and minoring in sports studies. He’s a fan of Pittsburgh sports and likes listening to music and lifting in his free time. You can contact him @kriley_brian on X or [email\u00a0protected]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a 3-0 win against UCONN to win the NC Regional Final, Penn State women\u2019s hockey is in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[377],"tags":[4412,5,19314,59656,31135,36892,59657,59658,2205,59659,59660,2146,2147,2149,9671,2150,2151,59661,23673,31137,2101,16066,31255,57953,12668,38003,59662,1581],"class_list":{"0":"post-509330","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-frozen-four","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-jeff-kampersal","11":"tag-kaite-desa","12":"tag-kendall-butze","13":"tag-maddy-christian","14":"tag-nc-tournament","15":"tag-nc-tournament-hockey","16":"tag-ncaa-tournament","17":"tag-ncaa-tournament-hockey","18":"tag-ncaa-tournament-womens-hockey","19":"tag-onward-state","20":"tag-penn-state","21":"tag-penn-state-hockey","22":"tag-penn-state-womens-hockey","23":"tag-psu","24":"tag-psu-hockey","25":"tag-psu-womens-hoceky","26":"tag-psu-womens-hockey","27":"tag-tessa-janecke","28":"tag-tournament","29":"tag-uconn","30":"tag-uconn-hockey","31":"tag-uconn-womens-hockey","32":"tag-wisconsin","33":"tag-wisconsin-hockey","34":"tag-wisconsin-womens-hockey","35":"tag-womens-hockey"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}