Oct. 15, 2012
By: Sean Flanery, GoPSUsports.com Student Staff Writer
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State Women's hockey team (1-3-0) came into its first home series versus Syracuse (2-2-0) coming off of a historical weekend.
Despite earning the program's first victory last weekend in Vermont, the Nittany Lions were unable to tally a win at the Greenberg Ice Pavilion this past weekend. The Lions lost in their inaugural home opener on Saturday and a matinee game on Sunday by scores of 4-0 and 6-0, respectively. While this past weekend marked the first ever home game for the women's program, it also marked the team's first look at conference play in the CHA (College Hockey America).
"We are all new to this," said assistant team captain Jenna Welch. "New to league play and we are going to keep building off of it. It's a rough start, but I think we can go up from here."
The Orange outshot the Nittany Lions by a total of 101-41 over the weekend. Freshman forward Micayla Catanzariti is one of three Nittany Lions with a team-high three points on the season and she believes there are things the team can take away from this past weekend.
"It was rough, we will be honest," said Catanzariti. "But, we are moving forward from it. There are so many things that we can learn. It's just little things too and that's what I think is really good. We have the heart and we will work on it this week. We will be right back at it next week"
While the Nittany Lions continue to struggle on offense, their power play unit still has yet to capitalize on the man advantage. Over the weekend, the Lions managed only eight shots on nine power play opportunities. Team assistant captain Jenna Welch believes if the team continues to buy into the coach's philosophy of defense first, goals will come.
"Coach always talks about our defense," said Welch. "Everything starts from our defense, so our focus from here on out is to work on that and the offense will come. This is a learning experience and we will go from there."
This season marks a true learning experience for this young Nittany Lion program. Much like Penn State, the Syracuse women's team faced a similar situation just four year's ago in its inaugural season. Syracuse Orange head coach Paul Flanagan offered up some advice as this new Nittany Lion team works through this season.
"I remember our first game was four years ago and we played at Colgate, we lost 4-3," said Flanagan. "We were pretty excited about ourselves and we went to Wisconsin the next weekend and we hung in there the first night, I think it was 3-0. Then the next day it was just a disaster, I think it was eight or nine to nothing, so you just can't get too low and you have got to relish the high points and you have to build on that and a lot of it is just about enthusiasm, really learning the fundamentals and just kind of staying the course."
Part of staying the course throughout the season for the Nittany Lions will be not allowing themselves to get caught up in the losses and moving forward towards their next opponent. Penn State head coach Josh Brandwene said the team needs to take things away from the weekend and move forward.
"We are all competitors and it's frustrating for everyone to come out on the losing end," said Brandwene. "Our job is to make sure that we balance that frustration, acknowledge that frustration, and still make sure that while it burns at you a little bit that we don't get stuck in the trees in the forest and that we see what we need to see from today, both that we can take away positive and what we need to work on. Today's over, tomorrow's a new day."
Penn State will look to rebound next weekend against a non-conference opponent as they travel to Sacred Heart (2-2-0) for a two-game series that will begin Friday night at 7 p.m.
- NITTANY LIONS -