Sept. 29, 2016
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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The Penn State women's hockey team opens its 2016-17 season this weekend at No. 5 Clarkson. The Nittany Lions and Golden Knights take to the ice Friday, Sept. 30, at 6 p.m. and Saturday, Oct. 1, at 3 p.m. inside the Cheel Arena in Potsdam, N.Y.
FOLLOW ALONG
Fans can follow along with live stats and live video via Clarksonathletics.com.
SCOUTING THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Clarkson enters its 14th season as a Division I program in 2016. Over the past four seasons, the Golden Knights have captured two ECAC Hockey regular season titles (2014-15), made four-straight NCAA Tournaments, advanced to the Frozen Four in 2014 & 2016 and won the NCAA Championship in 2014.
Last season, the Golden Knights went 30-5-5, posted a record of 14-3-5 in ECAC Hockey play and advanced to their second Frozen Four in the past three years.
Clarkson dropped its lone exhibition contest, 3-2, on Sept. 23 against the Concordia University Stingers.
The Golden Knights are ranked fifth in both the USA Today and USCHO.com polls.
LAST TIME OUT: GUELPH
The Penn State women's hockey team defeated the University of Guelph, 4-1, in an exhibition contest on Sept. 24.
In the victory, Laura Bowman, Meike Meilleur, Amy Petersen and Kelly Seward each tallied a goal.
In net, Hannah Ehresmann (14) and Daniela Paniccia (9) combined for 23 saves on the afternoon.
PRESEASON POLL
The Penn State women's hockey team was selected fourth in the College Hockey America (CHA) Preseason Coaches' Poll, as announced by the conference office Sept. 19.
DYNAMIC DUO
Nittany Lion linemates Laura Bowman and Amy Petersen return to the Blue and White for their senior season in 2016-17. During their junior seasons, Bowman tallied 25 points (17g, 8a) and Petersen recorded a career-best 29 points (8g, 21a).
Last season, Petersen recorded an assist on 12 Bowman goals. Petersen closed out her junior year with 18 points over the final 16 games and Bowman ended the year with four-straight games with a goal.
WELCOME BACK
The Nittany Lions return 13 members from the 2015-16 campaign. Last year, Penn State finished third in the CHA regular season standings, its best finish in program history.
The Nittany Lions return four of their top six scorers from last season in Amy Petersen (29 points), Laura Bowman (25 points), Victoria Samuelsson (13 points) and Bella Sutton (12 points). In net, junior Hannah Ehresmann returns to PSU after playing in 15 games last season.
2015-16 RECAP
The Nittany Lions finished the 2015-16 season with an overall record of 12-19-6 and a record of 6-8-6 in CHA play. Penn State finished third in CHA regular season, its best finish in program history.
Penn State tallied a record of 5-2-1 during the month of January last season.
In the first-ever meeting between the Nittany Lions and the Boston University Terriers, Penn State topped the No. 7/8 Terriers, 5-3, for its third win in program history over a ranked team.
In the all-time record books, Laura Bowman scored a single-season program-record 17 goals, she also tied a single-season program-best six power play goals scored and Amy Petersen recorded a single-season program-best 21 assists.
NEW FACES TO THE PROGRAM
The 2016-17 team features eight Nittany Lion freshmen. The Nittany Lion class of 2020 includes: Caileah Forrest, Brooke Madsen, Amanda McLeod, Katie McMillan, Daniela Paniccia, Kate Rydland, Olivia Villani and Abby Welch.
Along with the eight freshmen, two assistant coaches are slated to begin their first year on the bench for Penn State. Dean Jackson and Lisa Marshall joined the Nittany Lion coaching staff prior to the start of the 2016-17 season.
Jackson joined the Nittany Lions after serving as the head coach of the Elmira College women's hockey program for the past four seasons. Prior to Penn State, Marshall was an assistant coach for two seasons with the RIT Tigers.
THE 2016-17 SLATE
The Nittany Lions will play 34 games over the course of the 2016-17 regular season, which includes 16 home games inside the Pegula Ice Arena.
The 2016-17 schedule features the 2014 NCAA champion Clarkson Golden Knights (Sept. 30-Oct. 1), the second-ever series against Boston University (Oct. 14-15), a home series against Ohio State (Jan. 6-7) and the Nittany Lions close out the regular season at home against Syracuse (Feb. 24-25).
NEXT UP
The Nittany Lions continue their season-opening road trip in Schenectady, N.Y., against Union, Oct. 7-8.